Joey Essex breaks down in tears on Celebrity SAS after furious rows with Lauren Steadman who threatens to knock him out

BUST-UPS are normal on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, but next week a surprising row erupts when Joey Essex is paired on a disastrous task with Paralympian Lauren Steadman.

Tensions peak when the Towie star asks Lauren — who was born missing her lower right arm — why she can’t carry two objects.

She bursts into tears and threatens to knock him out.

Instructor Jason Fox demands an explanation for the growing aggression between the two, and Joey admits his behaviour stems from the suicide of his mum, Tina, when he was just ten years old.

Breaking down in tears he said: “Since I was a kid I’ve never trusted anyone, really.

“One day she was there, one day she was gone. I could never understand, why. I know my mum loved me, so I don’t know.

“My dad kneeled down and I remember him just grabbing my head and saying something along the lines of ‘Mummy’s gone’.

“I still didn’t really under­stand. It was like crazy. ‘No she can’t be gone, she can’t be gone. She’ll come back, she’ll come back — why would she leave me?’

“I’ve just started to process it — being able to talk about it openly and saying the word ‘mum’ — three or four years ago.”

A tearful Lauren is also grilled by the instructors, who say they are disappointed that she is struggling to work with other people.

I still think triple world champion Lauren is just as much of an inspir­ation as she was on 2018’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Helena’s got sheet cred

IT’S not clear if Helena Bonham Carter is actually wearing clothes here or has just wrapped herself in her bed sheets and left the house.

As the actress walked her Cockapoo Pablo with toyboy lover Rye Dag Holmboe, she was unrecognisable from her char­acter, Princess Margaret, who she plays in Netflix series The Crown.

Helena reprises the role, inset below, in the fourth season of the royal drama, which makes a much-anticipated return this autumn.

She was spotted in North London, holding a box of macaroons.

They wouldn’t last five minutes in my house on current lockdown form.

A final word on BGT

BRITAIN’S Got Talent will have its finals, ITV bosses have confirmed.

But they also admitted the audition stages very nearly didn’t make it on to our screens.

The scenes were filmed months before lockdown hit, but the new rules still disrupted the editing process.

Speaking in an online Q&A as part of the Edinburgh TV Festival, ITV head of entertainment Katie Rawcliffe said: “BGT is another big one that almost didn’t go on air due to several Covid- related things, but it has, thank God. That team had to react quick and pull all the edits in.”

While the live shows, hosted by Ant & Dec, should air later this year, they may have to be without a studio audience.

Also returning this year will be The Voice, which was cut short. And executives are working on a plan to make a second series of runaway hit The Masked Singer.

You’re smarter for 10

UNIVERSITY Challenge has been an unlikely lockdown ratings success, achieving record viewing figures. Last week the long-running BBC2 quiz pulled in three million people for the final, compared to 1.8million last year.

Patrick Holland, the channel’s controller, revealed: “Overall, telly viewing since the crisis began is up 25 per cent. The BBC is up 67 per cent.”

Travel contest Race Across The World and celebrity game show I’ll Get This have also been huge hits with BBC2 audiences.

Despite current social distancing conditions, the channel is filming another series of The Hospital – focusing on Covid-19 – and is going ahead with new episodes of Springwatch. People must be really bored if they’re watching University Challenge.

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