It is no larger than a small studio apartment.
But for three weeks, 12 celebrities cram into the same patch of Australian jungle where they are expected to eat, sleep, exercise, and exist with little to no intervention from the world outside.
It’s a reality TV format that I’m A Celeb bosses have perfected, lulling both viewers and contestants into a false sense that nothing exists beyond the 25 square metre plot of land.
Celebrities leave only if voted for by the public to embark on a Bushtucker Trial, and even then, they are transported in a bus with blackout windows so as not to see beyond the camp.
Viewers are treated in the same way, as show bosses go to great lengths to conceal behind-the-scenes areas and fans see only the camp, trial areas or hosts Ant and Dec’s studio.
But this is, in fact, just two percent in a far corner of what is a sprawling site in the Australian outback that takes months to set up for the three-week reality show to go ahead.
And for the first time in 25 years, the Daily Mail has obtained rare pictures that take fans beyond the small jungle plot and inside the vast operation behind the scenes of I’m A Celebrity.
As one camp insider said: ‘Watching the show, you would just never know how much work went into creating it, it’s such an enormous operation, it’s like a duck paddling underwater, so much work goes unseen into this seamless show.’
It is no larger than a small studio apartment. But for three weeks, 12 celebrities cram into the same patch of Australian jungle where they are expected to eat, sleep, exercise, and exist with little to no intervention from the world outside
An eight-minute drive from the small camp, up a chalk track through a tangled mass of trees, emerges a quarry-like clearing in the jungle where ITV Studios pitch their production marquees
Our pictures show cows grazing calmly on the green above a bustle of rental vehicles, shipping containers storing equipment, portacabins for toilets, and one large dining marquee at the centre with several smaller ones crowded around containing the editing suites
An eight-minute drive from the small camp, up a chalk track through a tangled mass of trees, emerges a quarry-like clearing in the jungle where ITV Studios pitch their production marquees.
Our pictures show cows grazing calmly on the green above a bustle of rental vehicles, shipping containers storing equipment, portacabins for toilets, and one large dining marquee at the centre with several smaller ones crowded around containing the editing suites.
Bushtucker Trial sites sit between the camp and the production area, so the three locations create a triangle within the jungle, connected by a series of winding roads.
The celebrities are aware of this area, as they are given a safety briefing about snakes, spiders and what to expect in the jungle and are provided with their outfits before being taken to the tiny clearing, where they are dropped in until eventually voted out.
Employing up to 700 staff members, mostly local Australians, the dusty industrial area is teeming with rental buses ferrying crew members in and out of the site, located a 10-minute drive from the nearest rural New South Wales town, Murwillumbah.
The camp insider added: ‘There aren’t many people from the UK out here, ITV doesn’t fly everyone over, they save on costs and hire locally.’
Having descended on the quiet area for more than two months, ITV Studios is sure to give back to the community and has donated more than £200,000 in 150 grants to non-profit organisations in the area since 2017.
The one entrance to the I’m A Celeb site is heavily guarded by security, reached only by a winding lane up and down into the foothills of the mountainous jungle where the camp is hidden.
Guest passes are doled out at the gate; it’s difficult to move anywhere on the main site without a pass, and they must be handed back in on exit – security is incredibly tight.
Walkie-talkies crackle on the belts of production staff who are dressed in full jungle garb, shorts, Akubra hats, and sunglasses who drive golf-carts to get around the site.
Crew congregate in the dining hall lined with rows of trestle tables where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served, and, I am told, the food is ‘delicious’ a far cry from the plain rice and beans the celebrities are living off less than a mile away.
Guest passes are doled out at the gate; it’s difficult to move anywhere on the main site without a pass, and they must be handed back in on exit – security is incredibly tight
The celebrities are aware of this area, as they are given a safety briefing about snakes, spiders and what to expect in the jungle and are provided with their outfits before being taken to the tiny clearing, where they are dropped in until eventually voted out
Due to filming and editing taking place over 24 hours, the site becomes a revolving door for hundreds of workers whose various roles require them to be around at different hours.
‘It’s never quiet,’ I am told as one worker likened it to ‘a beast that never sleeps.’
Longtime hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, both 50, are driven up in white Toyotas to the site at 3am where they sit and watch a final edit of the show from their dressing room set back from the main operation zone.
Their cabins are equipped with showers, toilets and sofas where they spend the day between filming trials until leaving the site at 3pm back to their luxury hotel half an hour drive away on the beach.
Once they have watched the final edit of the show, they are driven the 10 minutes by production in a van to their studio, which is a highrise platform built up on stilts almost directly above the camp among the trees.
It’s a world away from the busy production area.
Here, the sounds of the jungle creatures are overwhelming and their large presenting platform is occupied mostly by cameras under a large cover.
Three flimsy bridges connected through the trees lead towards the camp, only Ant and Dec are allowed to walk on the metal walkways, which wobble profusely and can only hold five people at once.
The bridges tower over the camp and those walking over can catch glimpses below but it is largely concealed.
Contestants can sometimes hear production vehicles or distant crew activity from their small area, buried deep among the foliage.
But noise, I am told, is kept minimal to preserve the illusion of isolation.
A drawbridge has been fitted at the end of the long bridge walkway by I’m A Celeb bosses to keep the campmates in after Anthony Worrel-Thompson led what is now known as ‘the great camp rebellion’ over a shortage of sausages.
Crew congregate in the dining hall lined with rows of trestle tables where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served, and, I am told, the food is ‘delicious’ a far cry from the plain rice and beans the celebrities are living off less than a mile away
Due to filming and editing taking place over 24 hours, the site becomes a revolving door for hundreds of workers whose various roles require them to be around at different hours
In 2003, the celebrity chef led his campmates across the network of bridges and tried to storm Ant and Dec’s studio in protest but where stopped by production.
Since a drawbridge cuts celebrities off from accessing the bridge or anyway out.
It can also be revealed that a hidden wall wraps around the perimeter of the camp, which was previously unknown, to keep both animals out but celebrities in no doubt.
Dozens of robotic and fixed cameras are camouflaged into the trees or disguised as jungle paraphernalia, filming 24 hours a day while camera crews also hide inside large fake boulders opposite the main camp.
Only the trials and big moments involve a more visible camera crew.
When travelling to trials, celebrities are bundled into buses with the windows purposefully blacked out to disorientate them as they bump along the eight minute drive to the trial area.
The radio is switched off, and crew members also have their watches covered so contestants can’t determine what time it is.
It cannot be understated that there is little to no interaction from the outside world, only when Ant and Dec visits the camp to share the results of a public vote or if a campmate is sick, production will deliver medicine.
Contestants have the choice between six swimming outfits, six pairs of underwear, or a combination of both, but no more.
Life in the camp is not easy for the celebrities, the beds are built to be uncomfortable, with many grabbing just three or four hours sleep a night, fashioning ear plugs out of toilet roll.
With such a basic lifestyle for the celebrities, it’s hard to grasp how vast the operation is surrounding that tiny patch of jungle.
