I get nervous when extremely camp men are cast on big mainstream reality TV shows. It’s a horrible kind of nerves. I get them because I feel the hesitance of the general public. When a figure like Tom Read Wilson is cast on I’m A Celeb 2025, I’m nervous because people don’t know who he is that much and because I know for a fact the assumption is that he will be overly dramatic, “a princess”, not get his hands dirty and be rubbish at trials. I know that the majority of the viewers of this show will see this person as a reflection of what they deem to be effeminate gay men who won’t be able to cope. How joyous then, to see Tom Read Wilson win over the nation and nearly emerge victorious of the whole thing.
Over the past year, we’ve seen pride events and general LGBTQ visibility get reduced and criticised in a more mainstream sense than I’ve ever witnessed in my adult life. It truly does feel like we’re going backwards, and it’s in the moments like this where I feel like representation matters. I’m A Celeb is a show watched by such a straight mainstream and its viewing figures are massive. Queer people should be allowed to go on telly without having to carry the weight of a community getting respect on their shoulders, but it does feel like that’s sadly the case right now.
The amount of people who stereotyped Tom Read Wilson saying he was going to be overdramatic and a primadonna on I’m A Celeb now turning around saying they like him now that he’s finished 2nd pic.twitter.com/MFUuO6KQNd
— Reba News and Updates (@BAB00SHKA_1) December 8, 2025
So as I geared up nervously hoping Tom Read Wilson on I’m A Celeb 2025 would be the LGBTQ representation we needed – he proved that he was in seconds. A very charming, eccentric and completely true to himself individual – he knocked down all the barriers people have up against him in seconds. He’s delicate and posh and feels like a character but he owns those things in a way that lets you in. He made such unlikely close friends in there by being down to earth and surprising people that queer people can be out of the expected norm but can be so in a way that still manages to be brave, resilient and never self absorbed. It was a delight.
How lucky we are that two of the most watched shows of the year had people like Alan Carr and Tom Read Wilson making idiots who write us off before knowing who we truly are. Both were written off as laughing stocks and both emerged as beloved, even more so than they were before. It just makes me very happy knowing that the public actually can still have their hearts opened to us even when the right wing agenda seeks to make us feel like the weirdos once again.
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