Gareth Gates, the singer, felt upset after being named the only celebrity face to complete this year’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins course.
The 39-year-old, who rose to stardom on Pop Idol, competed in the military-style series alongside former health secretary Matt Hancock, TV personality Danielle Lloyd, Olympic track and field athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton, and Love Island star Teddy Soares.
However, Hancock fell at the final hurdle when the directing team concluded he was not the guy they would want standing next to them in the fabricated real-life circumstance.
The last five hopefuls took part in a resistance to interrogation exercise, a vital element of SAS selection, in Sunday’s Channel 4 finals.
A trained team subjected them to brutal interrogation tactics, including being kept in extreme stress postures, while hiding their actual goal behind the guise of working for an animal welfare initiative called the Asian Saola Survey.
This was the opportunity for the disgraced MP to shine, coping with the intense strain of the circumstance and being recognised for his skill to lie.
He created an elaborate backstory which prompted the umpire to say: ‘The reality of it is he’s really good at lying.’
Discussing the interrogation, the West Suffolk MP said in a piece to camera: ‘Interrogation is something that is just part and parcel of my day job.
‘And maybe I will come completely unstuck but I’ve been interrogated in the most aggressive way by people being totally unreasonable. Have you met Piers Morgan?’
The MP, on the other hand, was later restrained in an extreme stress position for his ‘arrogance’ to the interrogator.
Gates maintained his story during his grilling, with the onlooking interrogation umpire saying: ‘He buys time well, he’s very considered, he’s genuinely an individual that’s quite difficult to get upset with.’
In a piece to camera, the singer revealed: ‘Whenever I’m feeling in a dark place, I just always think of my beautiful daughter’s face, smiling at me saying “You can do this daddy”. And I think that’s going to be my main source of inspiration.’
However, Soares revealed his true identity early on, revealing that he was a member of the British Special Forces, causing him to lose the challenge.
Hancock and Shakes-Drayton were put through more testing, with the MP being forced to pour a buck of ice cold water over the former Olympic athlete’s head.
The torture shattered Shakes-Drayton, who admitted to Hancock what their actual goal was, and she was later removed from the course.
Interrogator Dilksy also told Hancock that he had wound him up with his lies as a bucket of ice water was poured over him, adding: ‘You f***ing look down your nose at people like me with contempt. You’ve got no f***ing power here, my pedigree chum.’
The ice bucket treatment was also administered to Lloyd and Gates, causing the TV personality to cry, although their performances were commended by the interrogators.
The last three contenders – Gates, Lloyd, and Hancock – were then put through one final endurance test meant to simulate fighting under fire.
They had to pull tyres and logs through marshy waterways while wearing full gear before dragging jerry cans along a desolate road.
Each recruit had to hang from a bar dangling in the air for as long as they could for the last stage of the test.
Lloyd fell instantly, but Hancock hung on for one minute and ten seconds and Gates held on for one minute and twenty seconds.
While he was suspended, Gates, who was runner-up to Will Young on Pop Idol in 2002, could be heard saying in a piece to camera: ‘When I was a 17-year-old boy, I entered a TV talent show. I made the final but didn’t win.
‘It was hard at the time. But 20 years on I wanted to prove to myself that I am strong and I can make it right down to the end and hopefully even win.’
As the directing staff consulted on who they would pass, they said Gates had ‘pretty much passed virtually everything’ on the course and had remained a ‘frontrunner’ and ‘stoic’ from the beginning.
They also praised Lloyd’s ‘great character’ and ‘determination’ but noted that she was not ‘physically strong enough’ while they thought Hancock had ‘succeeded at most tasks’ and ‘outworked many of the people on the course’.
When it was revealed that Gates had passed, he was overcome with emotion and thanked the directing crew before his fellow candidates came to congratulate him.
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is available to stream now on Channel 4’s catch-up service.
