NORTH STAR:
I’m a Celeb favourite’s early career catastrophes
JORDAN North is on the road to being a “megastar”, in the words of I’m A Celebrity campmate Beverley Callard.
But his success on the show and as a Radio 1 DJ has come only after years of job disasters, which included being sacked and regularly mocked by workmates.
The 30-year-old, who has grafted since the age of 16, boasts he has a knack for impressing interviewers.
But it was usually a different story once he started work.
After leaving school, one of his first jobs was as a bricklayer. He said: “I was awful, they used to throw spanners at me and everything.
“Once, we were doing maintenance in a factory and I was looking for the ladder for the skirting board for about an hour.
“I went up to this man like, ‘Have you got a ladder for the skirting board?’, he goes, ‘No, no you need to go and ask Dave’.”
Worse was to come. He revealed: “My mum got me sacked, because they paid me £60 a week she turned up on the site and had a go.”
Working in a restaurant, the torment continued. He recounted: “I was a pot washer, and got sent on an errand for ‘salmon legs’.” Interviewed at the Holiday Inn for another possible job soon after, Jordan was his own worst enemy. He said: “I was s***faced”. My brother was going to Iraq [in the Army] and he said, ‘It’s my big night out, everybody’s coming’. We got back at about four.
“I think I had an hour’s sleep. I just remember talking absolute….”
He now has a firm advice for those with a job interview: “Do not go out the night before.” Even his job at Radio 1 got off to a shaky start.
He arrived and pronounced his boss Rhodri’s name wrong at reception: “I got there and went, ‘All right, Red-or-ri’… He went, ‘Actually, it’s Rhodri,’ and I went, ‘Sorry, pal’.”
Despite his skill for putting his foot firmly in it, Jordan is now 6-4 favourite to win the show.
Viewers have also noticed him strike up a friendship with Coronation Street’s Bev Callard.
This will be a dream for Jordan as he’s been a lifelong Corrie superfan.
Donna Crank, one his teachers at Penwortham Priory Academy in Preston, explained: “One of my many favourite memories of Jordan was when he came into lessons one day and sat there subdued.
“After a few minutes he shouted, ‘Bloody hell, I’ve forgotten to set record for Corrie tonight for me and my mum’. Everyone was just drawn in as he talked about the characters and the storyline.”
Headteacher Matt Eastham added: “He showed his cheeky side when Preston North End got through to the playoff final in 2005 against West Ham.
“Being head of PE then, I said any PNE fans could wear their PNE shirts for PE in the week leading up to the final. Jordan turned up in his Burnley shirt.”
Mum got me sacked after she turned up on site and had a go
JORDAN NORTH ON A YOUTHFUL JOB DISASTER