Matt Hancock saved Siva Kaneswaran from drowning when he became trapped underwater while shooting Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The Wanted singer was left suffocating beneath a pile-on during a game of’murder ball’ in a quagmire in the Vietnamese forest in footage expected to appear on Sunday’s edition of the punishing reality programme.
The recruits are divided into two teams and compete to throw a tyre towards a goal in the frantic game.
Things could have ended fatally for the boyband star, but the disgraced former MP had to think quickly – and presumably discover a better method to move – to assist him in escaping a horrific position.
‘There was one moment when I pulled Siva’s head out of the mud by his hair, because we were in a massive pile,’ he said as quoted by The Sun, pointing out that he was ‘across’ Siva at the time.
‘I was second to bottom effectively, across him. I could see that his face was underwater and he couldn’t get his head up because there were people everywhere.
‘So I grabbed the back of his hair and yanked him up so he could breathe.’
Siva remembered the ‘horrible’ experience, describing how the muck stole his vitality and made him fear he wouldn’t make it out alive.
He said: ‘You take three steps and the mud takes all your energy out, you’re running in deep sand and then you’ve got to fight against people. And then when they take you down, you’re going into muddy water and the mud is going, the mud went up to my eyeballs.
‘They just squish you to the bottom. I was scared at one point, I was like, “Oh my god, am I going to get out of this?” ‘
The pop star insisted he was at a disadvantage too, battling the likes of Jermaine Pennant, while Hancock recalled dealing with ‘sort of tactical chaos’ in the middle of it all.
‘They told me to be the leader of one of the teams, but of course Gareth Thomas is a former rugby international,’ he explained. ‘And Gareth, he was just going for the ball. So we lost any kind of strength, it was mad.’
Despite the terrifying moment he had to save Siva, Hancock admitted he’d love to play murder ball again in the future.
‘But that was great fun. I mean it was great fun. I would do that again tomorrow,’ he claimed. ‘It was totally exhausting and absolutely brilliant.’
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins continues at 9pm on Channel 4 on Sunday.
