Craig Charles says Adam Thomas’s row with Jimmy Bullard was ‘deeply traumatic’

By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

Red Dwarf star Craig Charles has said Adam Thomas’s row with Jimmy Bullard was “deeply traumatic” and that the broadcast was “watered down”.

The 61-year-old appeared emotional while defending his fellow finalists, Olympian Mo Farah and former football manager Harry Redknapp, who he claimed suffered “reputational damage” after receiving “dog’s abuse” following their time on the ITV reality show.

Ahead of the live finale on Friday, Charles appeared on This Morning alongside Mo and Redknapp and addressed the controversy, claiming that Thomas had internalised his feelings and that the three finalists were not aware he was being bullied.

He also claimed the row with former footballer Bullard was “un-broadcastable” and that Thomas became very aggressive.

It comes after a tense confrontation between Thomas and boxer David Haye after he criticised the Waterloo Road star on the reality TV show.

Thomas later had the explosive row with Bullard after the former footballer stopped a bushtucker trial early which nearly compromised his chances of remaining on the show.

Since the episodes aired, Thomas admitted to his brothers Scott and Ryan on their At Home With The Thomas Bro’s podcast that he went to therapy after a “tough time with one of the campmates” pushed him to “breaking point” on the show.

Speaking about the controversial incidents, Charles said: “ITV have got a duty of care. They’ve got like 24/7 people on high-definition close-ups picking it all out. They didn’t think he was getting bullied enough to step in. They would have stepped in if they thought he was being bullied, right?

“We didn’t see it until that final morning, when I thought David got a bit nasty, and I thought, ‘this is turning into bullying this now’.

“And that brings us to the Jimmy Bullard incident. They watered down the Jimmy Bullard incident, they watered it down. It was un-broadcastable as it was. It was deeply traumatic and it was really upsetting.

“Adam was so wound up. He was so aggressive. It looked like he was going to attack Jimmy. He was dropping F bombs and C bombs.”

The actor appeared emotional when he defended his fellow finalists who he claimed have suffered from the online response since the show aired.

He said: “The thing about it is, these guys, Mo by association, have suffered reputational damage with this social media campaign where they’ve given this 80-year-old man dog’s abuse on social media, just because he said, ‘I don’t like the way that Adam reacted’.

“We didn’t like the way Jimmy reacted. We didn’t like the way Adam reacted.

“I’m not denigrating Adam. If Adam needs to go to therapy and stuff like that, then fair enough but he internalised it all. We didn’t know it was going on and we just saw banter, not bullying until the last day.”

Speaking about his time on the show, he added: “I had such an incredible experience. I met some lovely people but the social media thing has spoiled it.

“I just remember tears of laughter. We laughed so much in that jungle and Adam laughed so much in that jungle and then to come back and see it all reduced to kind of like a grudge match. It was one of the best times in my life until all this happened.”

Charles appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here in 2014 and is a finalist in its all-star series set in South Africa with the winner crowned by the public on Friday.