Ex-drug mule Michaella McCollum signed up to Celebrity SAS to ‘push myself'
The pair, known as the 'Peru Two', were jailed for six years and eight months after admitting the crime but were freed in 2016 after striking a deal with Peruvian authorities.
McCollum told ITV's This Morning: 'Reality type TV series, I've never really been interested in doing anything like that, but I think SAS, there's no other show like that.
'So I thought it would be a really good way to test myself and try and push myself and do something completely different.
'So it was the one show I was like, you know what? I feel like I've been pushed to my limit through other experiences. Why not try this? Never in my life am I gonna face these type of challenges.'
The Channel 4 reality spin-off series follows 14 famous faces as they endure special forces training in an attempt to make it through SAS selection.
McCollum said: 'I did that show for me. I wanted to improve myself and push myself. It wasn't, 'I'm doing this because I want people to like me.''
A post shared by Channel 4 (@channel4)
Asked if she was worried about being subject to scrutiny, she said: 'Not really, because I know that's always going to exist.
'And any kind of decisions and things I make, there's always that kind of scrutiny. So I thought, whether I do the show, there'll always be some kind of talk about that.'
Speaking about what it was like to stay in prison, she said: 'It's obviously extreme, but I feel like I was incredibly adaptable, like I just kind of got along with it.
'And I think for the first part, I felt so guilty and bad. I kind of just thought: 'OK, I deserve it. I'll just suck it up. I'll just get along with it.'
'But I feel like it made me an amazing person. I came back when I was 23.'
Among the other famous faces taking part in the programme are professional boxer Conor Benn, S Club star Hannah Spearritt and the first celebrity deaf recruit, Love Island star Tasha Ghouri.
Airing across eight one-hour episodes, the seventh series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins will be available to watch on Channel 4 every Sunday and Monday from 9pm starting on August 3.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Leader Live
an hour ago
- Leader Live
Harry Hill says he was ‘absolutely merciless' in his determination to succeed
Hill, who gave up medicine for a career in comedy, was speaking as he appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. 'I was absolutely driven,' he told host Lauren Laverne. 'I had gone from doing 80, 100 hours a week as a doctor, getting up at the crack of dawn. Suddenly I had all this time free during the day, so I really felt like I had something to prove. 'So I would get up and I would write jokes.' Hill said he would make constant calls to get bookings when he started doing stand-up in the early 1990s. 'I would just bug them and bug them,' he said. 'I was absolutely merciless in my pursuit of it. It's not the funniest people that get on, it's the pushiest. And I was pushy.' Hill, whose real name is Matthew Hall, said his first stand-up gig was at a Mexican restaurant in South Norwood, south London. 'My first gag got a laugh, and it completely threw me because I had been rehearsing it without laughs,' he told Laverne. But he recovered and continued his routine, and even got another booking from it. Hill, who won the Perrier Award for best newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1992, said being a comedian means 'I can get away with just about any silly behaviour'. Hill, who created and presented Harry Hill's TV Burp on ITV from 2001 to 2012, said he takes time to prepare ahead of his comedy routines. 'I have to have an hour to myself,' he said. 'It's not a character, it is me. It is a persona, if you like. 'I have to pace up and down and work myself up, because if I don't do that it's not as funny.' Describing how he felt about being a doctor, he told Laverne about an incident soon after he qualified, when he had to break the news to a man that his wife had unexpectedly died during an operation. 'I was completely out of my depth,' he said. 'I told him and he started crying, and I started crying. I thought this is – this isn't good. What it makes you do is bottle up your emotions.' But he added: 'I wasn't a bad doctor.' Among the songs he chose as his desert island discs were Hey Bulldog by the Beatles, Life During Wartime by Talking Heads, and Gay Bar by Electric Six. Hill said a 'thick book you could use to kill small mammals' would be useful, and chose Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. He said his luxury item would be a bucket and spade, because 'where's the fun of a sandy beach without the ability to make sandcastles?'
Rhyl Journal
an hour ago
- Rhyl Journal
Harry Hill says he was ‘absolutely merciless' in his determination to succeed
Hill, who gave up medicine for a career in comedy, was speaking as he appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. 'I was absolutely driven,' he told host Lauren Laverne. 'I had gone from doing 80, 100 hours a week as a doctor, getting up at the crack of dawn. Suddenly I had all this time free during the day, so I really felt like I had something to prove. 'So I would get up and I would write jokes.' Hill said he would make constant calls to get bookings when he started doing stand-up in the early 1990s. 'I would just bug them and bug them,' he said. 'I was absolutely merciless in my pursuit of it. It's not the funniest people that get on, it's the pushiest. And I was pushy.' Hill, whose real name is Matthew Hall, said his first stand-up gig was at a Mexican restaurant in South Norwood, south London. 'My first gag got a laugh, and it completely threw me because I had been rehearsing it without laughs,' he told Laverne. But he recovered and continued his routine, and even got another booking from it. Hill, who won the Perrier Award for best newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1992, said being a comedian means 'I can get away with just about any silly behaviour'. Hill, who created and presented Harry Hill's TV Burp on ITV from 2001 to 2012, said he takes time to prepare ahead of his comedy routines. 'I have to have an hour to myself,' he said. 'It's not a character, it is me. It is a persona, if you like. 'I have to pace up and down and work myself up, because if I don't do that it's not as funny.' Describing how he felt about being a doctor, he told Laverne about an incident soon after he qualified, when he had to break the news to a man that his wife had unexpectedly died during an operation. 'I was completely out of my depth,' he said. 'I told him and he started crying, and I started crying. I thought this is – this isn't good. What it makes you do is bottle up your emotions.' But he added: 'I wasn't a bad doctor.' Among the songs he chose as his desert island discs were Hey Bulldog by the Beatles, Life During Wartime by Talking Heads, and Gay Bar by Electric Six. Hill said a 'thick book you could use to kill small mammals' would be useful, and chose Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. He said his luxury item would be a bucket and spade, because 'where's the fun of a sandy beach without the ability to make sandcastles?'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Future of ITV's Love Island in doubt following thousands of complaints that female contestants are regularly 'slut-shamed and manipulated'
Two reality TV hopefuls' lives will change forever tomorrow when the public crown their £50,000 Love Island winners – with far more riches likely to be waiting for them back in the UK. But the future of ITV 's flagship dating show may not be so rosy. The Mail on Sunday can reveal the broadcaster will be reviewing it later this month, with insiders forecasting the winter series and All Stars are facing 'the chop'. Love Island viewers this season have been rocked by the 'abusive' behaviour of the contestants towards one another, leading to 9,000 Ofcom complaints in a week and prompting the TV watchdog to begin an investigation. The charity Women's Aid even waded in by issuing a statement criticising the show as a place where 'women are often lied to, slut-shamed and manipulated'. One insider said: 'ITV is stuck between a rock and a hard place because this sort of behaviour is generating incredible viewing figures, with this series being the most watched since summer 2022 – it's averaging 2.4million viewers. 'ITV also can't be seen to be promoting the values some of these contestants are displaying – it's all getting a bit too much.' Another issue raised by the insider was 'over saturation', with viewing figures dropping since the launch of the winter series in 2020 and the All Stars last year. At its peak in 2019, it attracted 6million viewers a night, falling by a million a year later. And after the All Stars series was introduced in 2024, figures plummeted to an all-time low of 1million for the launch of this series. The insider added: 'The plan is to follow the US formula of one show a year with more vetting of contestants, higher quality and more control, which will mean the winter series and All Stars get the chop.' The majority of complaints were about the 'bullying' of Shakira Khan, 22, with one viewer saying: 'This isn't entertainment, it's emotional neglect.' Jessye Werner, of Women's Aid, said 'more must be done to educate contestants on sexism and misogyny'. And she praised viewers 'who call out these behaviours'.
