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I’m A Celebrity has 100 cameras filming camp – the edit was my biggest fear not the bugs, says Martin Roberts
Martin can't wait to watch his former camp rival on screen this Christmas
HOMES Under The Hammer legend Martin Roberts had plenty to scream about in the I'm A Celebrity camp.
But it wasn't the torturous trials and creepy crawlies that scared him the most when he braved the Australian jungle eight years ago.
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The TV veteran was more fearful of the way the show would edit him and portray him to millions of viewers back home.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun on behalf of , Martin said: "I actually think that was the biggest fear, not the cockroaches, not the disgusting things you eat; it was how it is edited.
"Because, bear in mind, they've got 100 cameras in the jungle alone, and they're recording 24 hours a day, so that's 2400 hours of footage, which they've got to get down into about 40 minutes, so they can pick whatever they want.
"Now, I think they do a great job, but when you look back, there's a lot of stuff that happened that maybe wasn't shown, but they've done an amazing job of just really trying to pick out a flow."
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A common complaint from viewers revolves around certain campmate receiving lots of air time while others go "missing".
But Martin doesn't believe bosses have an agenda when it comes to deciding who features in each episode.
"I don't think they editorially control who they want to win," he said. "I don't think that they feature one person over any other, when you look back, say at my series, and I watched it through, I thought there's a real balance of who they're showing.
"I think they're very aware that they need to give everyone their their spotlight, and I think that's what they do."
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In 2016, Martin found himself at the heart of a jungle bullying row, with viewers unhappy at how Gavin and Stacey star Larry Lamb was treating him.
Late arrival Martin appeared to grate on Larry, who described him as a "lower middle class snob", and the pair clashed multiple times.
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They eventually made up in an emotional off-screen moment after the show that saw them share a hug at their luxury hotel before heading back to the UK.
Reflecting on how people behave in camp, Martin said: "It is really interesting, isn't it, as a TV show, how people's real personalities come through, and what the public warms to.
"There is a running theme every year of what the public really like and they certainly don't like any aggression, they don't like any bullying, they don't like anyone who's just horrible."
Despite their differences in camp, Martin holds no ill will towards Larry and said he can't wait to watch him in the much-anticipated Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special.
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When it comes to who he's rooting for this year, Martin has a top three: Reverend Richard Coles, Danny Jones and Coleen Rooney.
He sang the praises of former popstar Richard after the kind Rev kindly read a section of one of Martin's children's books that he created for the NSPCC.
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And he said of Coleen: "I would have thought that she's silenced her worst critics, because she's just been straight and normal, and down to earth, and unaffected.
"You can't pull the wool over people's eyes for this amount of time, I think that's generally how she is."
Martin and Larry's I'm A Celeb bullying row explained
Martin was a late arrival to the camp in 2016, and it quickly became apparent that he and Larry Lamb were very different personalities.
There were arguments, and tears at times, as the pair clashed about all manner of things, from drawing straws to make camp decisions to weight jibes.
After leaving camp, Martin said: "Larry tried to undermine me and the group and he tried to turn people against me.
"I’ve heard that he actually said on camera that I was a ‘f****** lower middle class snob’. I don’t understand what that is. But clearly it’s not very nice.”
He continued: “One thing that hurt most was when he was interviewed after a challenge and I heard him say: ‘He doesn’t need to win, because he’s a porker and he doesn’t need the food’.
"The day before, I talked about how I was badly bullied because I was fat, so Larry heard all of that.”
Larry denied being a bully and said: "Any suggestion of bullying is nonsense. I’m sorry Martin feels that way, I wish he’d said something to me.”
While the pair haven't spoken for years, they did hug it out after the series and cleared the air before jetting back to the UK.
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