Joe Swash is returning to I’m A Celebrity, as a presenter, before heading for pantomime at York. He tells Steve Pratt that panto has proved to be more dangerous in the past

KING of the Jungle Joe Swash has lost his crown. His mum has got her hands on it and won’t give it back. Both the crown and sceptre awarded as the winner of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here have pride of place in his mum’s bathroom.

“I’ve tried to get them back, but I think they’re going to stay put,” says the former EastEnders actor.

He’s missing out on playing royalty in Cinderella at York Barbican this Christmas – he’s the prince’s valet Dandini in the panto. “I’m looking forward to it. This is my fourth panto so I’m slightly feeling I know what I’m doing,” says the evercheerful Swash.

“I did my first panto after coming out of the jungle and I was terrified, but it’s a good way of breaking the ice. I love it and I’m am so pleased I get asked back to do it every year. So lucky.”

Before coming to York he’s returning to the jungle, not as a contestant but as a presenter on the nightly spin-off show that rounds up and comments on the day’s events. He’ll be back from Australia just before rehearsals start for the York show, which also features Dani Harmer, who plays Tracy Beaker on TV, and another Joe – Joe Tracini, alias Dennis Savage from Hollyoaks.

Going into the jungle changed people’s attitude to him. “I started off as an actor, so obviously doing I’m A Celebrity opened and shut some doors. It’s been difficult to do acting since, but I love presenting or doing stuff like this panto,” he says.

“I’ve just followed where the work is and at the moment it’s more the jungle-style personality stuff, but I think I’ll get into the acting thing again soon.”

It wasn’t easy after playing Mickey in EastEnders.

“When you leave something like EastEnders it’s out of your hands what the next step is. You just have to wait and hope for the best. I’m A Celebrity was my way out of it,” he says.

Even going into the jungle was a risk. “You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place because if you do it and come across quite badly and people don’t like you, you definitely won’t work as much again. it’s a risk I had to take and, hopefully, it worked out quite well.”

Asked about the worst bit of the experience he doesn’t hesitate in saying, “Definitely eating a crocodile penis” while adding, “Overall I have really happy memories about it. I loved it.”

He doesn’t rule out doing another reality show.

He’d do Strictly Come Dancing if asked, because he’d be learning something. He’d go into the jungle again if the producers staged a winners’ show.

“I’ll leave it there with the reality stuff,” he says.

CELEBRITY Big Brother, he thinks, must be the hardest of all of the reality shows. “That would be the most mentally and physically draining. That situation breeds arguments, doesn’t it? It’s designed to bring out the worst in you as well. I don’t think I want people to see the worst in me.”

An audience at a previous panto performance saw more of Swash than they expected thanks to a costume malfunction. “I was wearing those oldfashioned trousers where you button them up on the side. The buttons came undone and they fell down – and I had no pants on. It was on the press night. I think there were a few kids who got more than they asked for. It wasn’t meant to be like that.”

  • Cinderella: York Barbican, Dec 21-30. Box Office: 0844-8542757 and yorkbarbican.co.uk