CORONATION Street favourite Alan Halsall reveals he had to hold a very lengthy secret after injury forced him out of I’m A Celebrity back in 2023.
The Tyrone Dobbs actor, 43, couldn’t take part as planned after rupturing his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and needing surgery to fix it.
Alan Halsall took part in I’m A Celebrity in 2024, but had been due to take part a year earlier Credit: Rex
Alan finished sixth, with McFly’s Danny Jones winning the series Credit: Rex
However, ITV bosses wanted him on the show and quickly moved to secure him for the series the following year.
Speaking exclusively to The Jattvibe, Alan said: “I’m a Celebrity try to keep it under wraps as much as they possibly can. So you are kind of warned about that.
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“Nobody knew it when I was doing it, even though I should have been in the year before, but I injured my knee so I couldn’t go. So yeah, I had to keep it quite quiet, which was fun.”
Alan’s jungle journey ended up being a success and he finished in a respectable sixth place, with McFly‘s Danny Jones winning ahead of Coleen Rooney and Revered Richard Coles.
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Alan needed an ACL reconstruction in 2023, forcing him out of I’m A Celeb Credit: Instagram
Alan credited his days fishing with his dad for preparing him for jungle life Credit: Supplied
The series he had originally signed for was won by Sam Thompson, who beat boxer Tony Bellew to the jungle crown.
Alan, who is backing the Environment Agency’s Summer Fishing Licence campaign, was better prepared for the Aussie jungle than most, largely thanks to a childhood spent outdoors with his dad.
“I think out of all the [reality shows] that probably suited me, to be honest with you,” he said.
“It does hark back to the fishing and the camping. All that side of it I found very easy because I’d spent a lot of time outside and the actual camp life of it was… I was in charge of the fire the whole time because that’s things that I’d done growing up, and all these skills that I learned from my dad early on, I implemented them in the jungle.
“I remember as a kid, I was always trying to make things. Whilst you’re fishing, sometimes there’s periods of time where you’re not catching, and I was always trying to make things, and my dad would show me this. So I did a lot of that.”
Alan, who is now backing the Environment Agency’s Summer Fishing Licence campaign, continued: “You didn’t see much of it on telly, but I made so many things. I made a plug for the bath. I made a sweeping brush.
“Worms. I remember we used to go digging for worms to go fishing with my granddad. He was actually my next-door neighbour. But in my granddad’s allotment, and we’d go digging through the mud and crap just to get all the worms for our fishing in and things like that.
“So all the things like that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve not seen many spiders that big when I’ve been fishing, but everything else I was fine with!”
Alan is supporting the Environment Agency’s Summer Fishing Licence campaign, which aims to highlight the wellbeing benefits of fishing and the importance of having a valid licence. To get yours now visit, Buy a rod fishing licence: When you need a licence – GOV.UK
