I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! viewers have branded contestant Dean McCullough “insufferable” after he was involved in a tense exchange with Coronation Street star Alan Halsall.
McCullough is among the famous faces taking part in this year’s ITV reality contest. In the latest episode on Saturday (23 November), he met up with his fellow campmates after spending a luxurious few days in the junkyard camp with Love Island star Maura Higgins and Reverend Richard Coles.
After Higgins and Coles won a full 12 meals for the campmates in a grim Bushtucker Trial, the contestants sat down to a feast of burgers, hotdogs and chicken nuggets.
Seemingly full from the meal, McCullough had a nap on McFly singer Danny Jones’s bed as Loose Women presenter Jane Moore went to fetch firewood.
Pointing out camp rules that say contestants can’t go into the jungle to do chores alone, Halsall, who has played Tyrone Dobbs on Coronation Street for 26 years, attempted to gently rouse McCullough.
Unfortunately, McCullough was unimpressed at being disturbed, as Halsall asked: “You don’t fancy it? No?”
Halsall then went to help Moore before McCullough got up and told the soap star he could return to the main camp.
“I was trying to wake you up as soft as I could,” Halsall explained.
Even as Halsall apologised, McCullough leaned over him and put his hands on his shoulders and told him: “You need to give me a minute. Listen to me, if you’re gonna wake me up, you need to give me a minute… No, no, you listen to me. You need to give me a minute, OK?”
As Halsall tried to explain himself, McCullough continued to talk over him. Halsall apologised, as McCullough said: “I don’t think you’re gonna listen, but that’s OK.”
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McCullough later proceeded to complain about Halsall waking him up in the diary room.
While the Coronation Street actor was praised by viewers for his handling of the situation, fans were less impressed with McCullough’s behaviour.
“What a guy Alan Halsall when Dean McCullough laid into him he calmly difused the situation,” one viewer said.
“Alan, don’t apologise,” one viewer wrote on X/Twitter. “Dean McCullough is a grade A knob. Can’t stand the bloke.”
“Dean McCullough has to be up there for being one of the most insufferable people to ever be on I’m a Celeb,” another fan said.
“Dean pisses me off more with each episode,” one viewer complained. “He slept in a bed then went for a nap and has the audacity to speak like that to Alan.”
“If this episode has taught me anything it’s that Dean is a selfish bastard,” another fan said. “What has he done to make him more tired than everyone else?? You need to be a team player… then to be rude to Alan, awful.”