The singer Gareth Gates has won this year’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, in a final where his competitor – the former health secretary Matt Hancock – was singled out as being “really good at lying”.
Gates, who found fame on the TV talent show Pop Idol, made it to the final of the Channel 4 military-style series alongside Hancock, the TV personality Danielle Lloyd, the Olympic track and field athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton and the Love Island star Teddy Soares.
It is the second celebrity TV series that Hancock has entered and failed to win, after being beaten in I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! earlier this year.
Hancock lost the Conservative whip for appearing on that show in January and was criticised by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for leaving his constituents to appear.
In Sunday’s Celebrity SAS finale, the last five competitors took part in a “resistance to interrogation” challenge, a key stage of SAS selection.
They were subjected to punishing interrogation techniques by a specialist team, including being held in extreme stress positions, while using a cover story that they were working for an animal welfare project called the Asian Saola Survey.
Gates maintained his story during his grilling. The onlooking interrogation umpire said: “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 said: “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.’”
Meanwhile, Hancock came up with an elaborate backstory that prompted the umpire to say: “The reality of it is, he’s really good at lying.”
Discussing the interrogation, the West Suffolk MP said: “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?”
Hancock was later restrained in an extreme stress position for his “arrogance” towards the interrogator.
Soares broke his cover story early and told them he was with the British special forces, which resulted in him failing the challenge.
Hancock and Shakes-Drayton were tested further when the MP was told to pour a bucket of ice-cold water over the former Olympic athlete’s head. The treatment broke Shakes-Drayton, who confessed what their true mission was, and she was later removed from the course.
The interrogator told Hancock that he had wound him up with his lies, adding: “You fucking look down your nose at people like me with contempt. You’ve got no fucking power here, my pedigree chum,” before a bucket of cold water was poured over him.
The remaining trio of contestants – Gates, Lloyd and Hancock – had to face one final test of endurance, which was designed to replicate combat under fire. While wearing their full kits, they had to drag tyres and carry logs through swampy waters before carrying jerrycans up a barren road.
Each recruit had to then hang from a bar for as long as they could. Lloyd immediately dropped, while Hancock held on for 1 minute and 10 seconds and Gates 10 seconds longer.
While he was suspended, Gates, who was runner-up to Will Young on Pop Idol in 2002, viewers were shown a clip in which he said: “When I was a 17-year-old boy, I entered a TV talent show. I made the final, but didn’t win … 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.”
When he was announced as the only contestant to successfully pass this year’s course, Gates appeared overwhelmed with emotion.
