Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ’Arry
NOEL EDMONDS made his debut as the emperor of the I’m A Celebrity jungle last night – and immediately made Harry Redknapp his right hand man.
Dressed in Roman gear with a purple cloak and gold crown, the 69-year-old Deal Or No Deal star strode on to a colosseum set to be introduced to the other contestants on the ITV show.
Host Declan Donnelly told them: ‘You are no longer masters of your own destiny. You are now gladiators and your fate will be decided by a new camp leader. All hail the emperor.’
Edmonds then walked out to a fanfare, saying: ‘Hail! And rain. And some sunny periods later!’ – a reference to the Australian weather.
He will not have to take part in any of the usual bugmunching tasks and was allowed to pick one of the contestants as his personal adviser. Former soccer boss Redknapp, 71, was crowned with a laurel wreath and given his own Roman outfit.
Earlier, it emerged that Edmonds had likened the boss of Lloyds to a cockroach as he launched a £30million claim against the bank.
He is expected to use his stint on I’m A Celebrity to draw attention to his long battle with the company.
‘Hopefully I will stay in long enough that every time I eat a cockroach millions of people will be thinking of [Lloyds chief executive] Antonio Horta Osorio,’ he said.
Edmonds claims his firm, Unique Group, was destroyed when bankers committed a £1billion fraud at HBOS, which Lloyds rescued at the height of the financial crisis.
Lloyds says it cannot be held responsible for what happened to his company.
‘Hail! And rain and some sun’