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Bosses at I’m A Celebrity say this year’s show will have a “new and unique feel” thanks to a Game Of Thrones-style makeover for the castle ruins where 10 contestants will live.
The famous jungle shower has been replaced by a shower head over a rusty bathroom that requires someone to pump water and others to power a boiler to enjoy a warm wash.
Elsewhere there will still be a campfire for celebrities to sit and cook, but it is surrounded by stone rather than greenery. And your dinner will be delivered by a mute waiter instead of being thrown from the treetops and made to wait until midnight for dinner.
Beds are strewn across the ruins of Gwrych Castle in a room that has no heating, broken windows, and moss and ivy growing on the stone walls.
Contestants will also be guided up the stairs and into the trials by fire lanterns on the walls in an incredible transformation of the ruins in just 10 weeks.
And just like in Australia, they will be forced to flush the toilet, with the ‘Castle Privvy’ taking the place of the Dunny.
And since temperatures are expected to be close to zero, they will need thermals to keep warm while they sleep.
Executive Producers Tom Gould told the Mirror: “We want to keep what I’m A Celebrity is, but we want to draw on the castle and the stage to give it that unique new feel. I hope that is what we have done. Once we made up our minds and committed to it, doing this has been a labor of love and an opportunity to reinvent, but also to preserve the parts that we know viewers know, love and recognize. “
Pointing to the shower, very different from the famous one enjoyed in the Australian camp sun, he said: “It’s not a one-man job at the castle, you need your friend to pump up and out of a shower. You have a little more privacy than you have in the jungle with a modesty screen, but not much privacy. “
Gould also confirmed that trials will take place late at night and the camp is expected to be up until 2-3 a.m. and not get up until the early hours of the morning.
He added: “The auditions are going to happen after the live show at night, so the day has changed. Trials happen at the end of the day and the food they have earned will be quickly brought back to the camp. The tests will take place in places like the dungeons and the crypt. “
The other most important area that will be abuzz with activity is the patio where the bathroom is but also where there is a raised area with seating for conversation and where the boiler is.
Gould added: “This is where they go to wash, wash clothes, dry and there is the boiler. They will collect wood and operate a wood splitter. The boiler must be kept full of logs and they have to prime the boiler so that it has adequate pressure to give them warm water.
“This is what they are going to have to do to get any kind of warm water and they will have to do it for half an hour to make it work, so it will be an important part of their tasks.”
This year, contestants will compete for Castle Coins instead of Dingo Dollars and the goodies will be handed out at the Ye Olde Shoppe or Yr Hen Siop instead of the Outback Shack.
ITV bosses looked at up to 20 castles, but Gould said they knew Gwrych Castle was the right one almost as soon as they arrived.
Ant and Dec will host from a studio area that has its own drawbridge-style entrance, overlooked for miles out to the Irish Sea, creating a beautiful setting for the contestants and the television show.
When the time comes for the contestants to leave, they will exit through a portcullis gate and massive castle gates.
The show has moved to Gwrych Castle for 2020 due to the pandemic ruling out the use of the usual Down Under camp.
It has also meant that the Trust that looks after the castle ruins has received £ 300,000, which has saved jobs in the area and created new ones.
Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust founder and director Mark Baker said earlier this week: “Typically it would take us over two years to raise £ 300,000. With the second wave of Covid, the program has saved not only us, but many local businesses. Hundreds of jobs have continued because ITV has employed them on the site. “
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