I’m A Celeb’s Craig Charles takes one other swipe at ITV bosses for ‘enhancing out laughs to give attention to controversy’ in parting blow following dramatic reside closing

I’m A Celeb finalist Craig Charles took another swipe at ITV bosses during an appearance on spin-off Unpacked following Friday’s chaotic live final.

Just moments before, the filming had descended into mayhem as hosts Ant and Dec struggled to control the contestants after Jimmy Bullard accused winner Adam Thomas of being ‘abusive, aggressive and intimidating’.

As  David Haye launched into a rant and the studio became increasingly more intense Gemma Collins and Sinitta stormed off stage in fury. 

While Adam, 37, failed to appear on Unpacked Craig was joined by fellow finalist Harry Redknapp, 67, where he hit out at the way the show was edited claiming ‘laughs were cut to concentrate on controversy’. 

He told hosts Sam Thompson and Kemi Rodgers: ‘I’ll always remember it for tears of laughter, rather than tears of pain. We laughed so much in that camp. I‘m talking proper belly laughs, I mean my stomach was aching with the laughter.’

Criticising the way ITV edited the footage, he added: ‘But they didn’t really show much of that. It kind of got sidetracked by the controversy

‘But I’ll always take away that we laughed so much. We bonded so well and I’m gonna take away friends for life from this experience.’ 

Earlier in the day  Craig Charles broke down as he hit out at ITV for ‘watering down’ the aggressive and traumatic row between Adam and Jimmy.

Appearing on Friday’s episode of This Morning he struggled to get his words out as his voice cracked while talking about the feud surrounding Adam on the show. 

Adam, 37, and Jimmy, 47, locked horns during a Bushtucker Trial in the pre-recorded South Africa-based show last year, when Jimmy refused to do a trial and put Adam’s position at risk since they were partnered up. 

Opening up about the incident, Craig said: ‘They watered down the Jimmy Bullard incident, it was unbroadcastable as it was. 

‘It was deeply traumatic and really upsetting, it was between the two of them. Adam was so wound up – he was so aggressive, like a coiled up spring. It looked like he was going to attack Jimmy. 

‘He was dropping f-bombs and c-bombs…  It really was traumatic and they couldn’t broadcast it, and I’m not blaming ITV, they couldn’t [put it out].’ 

Craig added: ‘They had to water down what [viewers saw] but they didn’t water down our responses, so people were thinking, “Oh, it wasn’t that bad, why are they picking on Adam?”

‘We weren’t picking on Adam at all, it was just what he did.’

During the live finale hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly struggled to control the situation as Gemma Collins and Sinitta stormed off stage in fury.

The Geordie duo gave Jimmy the opportunity to speak after Adam allegedly called him the ‘C-word’ in an explosive clash when he pulled the plug on the show early last year.

Jimmy admitted he had to leave for personal reasons and that if he didn’t say ‘I’m A Celebrity’ in the challenge, he would not have received his full pay.

‘Listen, Adam and all of you can be upset with me and I absolutely threw him under the bus, I get it and I’ll wear that’, Jimmy said. ‘But what I don’t stand on, is someone being abusive, aggressive and intimidating, I don’t stand on that.’

Welcoming Ant and Dec to share their opinion on the matter, Jimmy said: ‘You [pointing to the hosts] were there and you didn’t show any of that [footage].’

‘You didn’t show any of the C-bombs, it’s a liberty’, Jimmy fumed. 

Ant argued: ‘The reason we didn’t air the C-bomb is because that is unbroadcastable. I was there and I didn’t think it was intimidating. I was there Jim.’