Latest news with #extremechallenge
The Sun
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Simon Cowell wanted to join Channel 4 reality show but backed out over health warning, says pal
DON'T let the high-waisted jeans, tinted specs or luxury lifestyle fool you – Simon Cowell reckons he's a real tough guy at heart. In fact, the music mogul even considered signing up for Channel 4's extreme challenge show, SAS: Who Dares Wins, according to his pal Lucy Spraggan. 7 7 Singer Lucy, who has grown close to Simon since starring on The X Factor in 2012, warned him off the idea — then joined the line-up herself. She said: 'He thought it was a great idea, me doing the show. 'He knows I love being outdoors. We do a lot of shooting air rifles and stuff together, so he knows this is my thing, testing my mental resilience. 'It was just funny because he had said, 'Oh, maybe I'll try and have a go at it'. 'I was like, ' Simon, you would literally die!'. It was funny because it really contextualised how hard it was that I just straight away said to him, 'You would have no chance'. 'But Lauren [Silverman, Cowell's wife], I said to her at dinner the other day, 'You should have a go'. She could do it, it would be funny.' Simon, right, and Lucy have become such good pals, he walked her down the aisle at her wedding to Emilia Smith last summer. The new series of SAS: Who Dares Wins, which begins next Sunday at 9pm, sees Simon dial in to give Lucy a pep talk — but it doesn't end well. She said: 'The DS [directing staff] hung up on him and he was like, 'I've never been so angry'.' Lucy's not the only celebrity recruit with reality TV experience. But ex-military man and winner of The Traitors, Harry Clark, seems to have his shows mixed up, as he is rumbled cheating in physical tasks. Lead instructor Billy Billingham rages: 'His integrity and honesty stinks, he's playing us.' Harry said: 'That's when I was the most scared. I was like, 'I've let the Army down. I've definitely let every-one at home down, and I've let myself down'. 'But I was in so much pain with my body and my feet. I remember my big toe, it was infected.' Apart from the shame, Harry wasn't phased being bawled at by instructors. He said: 'That didn't really bother me. I was in the Army since I was 16, so it wasn't really any different.' Perhaps Simon thought the same after all those X Factor bootcamps. 7 LOUIE IN PORNO FANTASY LOUIE SPENCE lasted less than 24 hours on the course – but it wasn't the hard graft that put him off. The former dancer reveals he couldn't take the former special forces soldiers seriously because he felt like he was in a gay porn movie. Louie, who battled to keep a straight face, said: 'I'm sorry, I couldn't get it out of my mind – as soon as I had to put this hood on and could see these black boots walking along, before they pull that hood off and say: 'What's your name?' 'I was thinking, God, this is like a gay fantasy porno. It's like you're in the Army now, you've been a naughty boy. 'I couldn't get it out of my mind, just expecting the DS to strip. I thought, 'This isn't good'.' ALL GO, CHLOE SHE'S taken on her fair share of reality shows, but nothing could have prepared Chloe Burrows for her SAS stint. The former Love Island bombshell thought she'd get a break from the gruelling regime during filming so was stunned to discover it's so full-on, they have medics on stand-by. Chloe said: 'We had the meeting before and it was like, 'Yeah, there's going to be an ambulance crew within a kilometre, they've dealt with saving lives'. And I was thinking, 'Oh, my God . . . '. I did go in a bit naive. 'It was a complete culture shock. I've worked on other shows before . . . you do get a bit of respite. 'Even when I've done Scared Of The Dark, and Inside, where you are filmed 24/7, you do get a little bit of relaxing time – you know, a bit of a moment to yourself. 'But there was no break. Like, honestly, you were on, on, on all day. It was a lot, to be honest.' WHAT A GAS, MIC AFTER taking on the dreaded gas chamber challenge, Michaella McCollum reckons she would be up for more of the same. The single mum who got jailed in Peru for smuggling cocaine, was meant to rescue a hostage trapped inside, and saved herself instead. But she said: 'You know what, I would probably do that one again even though I messed it up. 'I got the hostage to the window and then I jumped out the window. [DS] Foxy was like, 'What the f*** are you doing? Your job is to save the hostage and then yourself.' 'The gas was awful. You cannot breathe. Your eyes are exploding. "There's just snot coming from your nose, your eyes, everything. You feel like you're dying. It's horrific. 'But if we had to do that challenge again, I'd have done it and saved the hostage.' BOXER Conor Benn and ex-footballer Troy Deeney were left battered and bruised – to the horror of their wives. The pair, above, had to fight each other during the course and were roughed up from other challenges, too. 7 For one test, Conor had to jump backward off a viaduct in the Welsh hills but his harness was so tight he was left squirming. 'I lost my left testicle,' he joked. 'I'm still looking for it, which is not very good seeing as my missus wants more kids. ' I don't know how much luck we'll have with that now. 'That was more painful than being punched in the head for a living.' Meanwhile Troy sported his injuries as he wed partner Alisha after returning from filming. He said: 'She wasn't too happy I turned up with a black eye.' HARDMAN Chief Instructor Billy Billingham reckons the show will be a wake-up for the celebrities. He said: 'With the world being as unstable as it is, we may all be called to the battlefield, to defend. "These celebrities are going to get an understanding of what that feels like.' Tasha Ghouri and Adam Collard, S Club 7's Hannah Spearritt, glamour girl Rebecca Loos, drag queen Bimini and musician Lady Leshurr.
The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Horrendous blisters': Retired UK banker, 65, attempts to run 200 marathons in 200 days
The first fortnight was tough – terrible blisters, a flare of gout that needed a visit to A&E and the rapid realisation that running 200 marathons in 200 days around the coast of Great Britain would not be a walk in the park. But Steve James, a 65-year-old retired banker from Devon, has found his feet, and on Thursday reached the halfway mark – an average of 100 marathons in 100 days. 'In those first two weeks I was thinking: 'What have I done?'' James said. 'I've been running for 50 years and never get blisters – but I had horrendous ones for the first 10 days. My feet felt like they had been put in a vice and squeezed. The gout was a bit of curveball but the hospital prescribed some stuff and it went away. Now I feel fine.' James's progress along the coastlines of England, Wales and Scotland is being tracked by experts from the University of Exeter, who are keen to find out the effects of such an extreme challenge on an older person. He set off from Topsham, on the south coast of Devon, in April and headed to Kent in south-east England. He then ran north to John o'Groats in north-east Scotland and is on the Scottish west coast steadily working his way south. There is no set route. He has a plan but adapts and changes it. 'If you're in Devon and Cornwall and Wales, there is a clearly defined coast path. In Scotland there's virtually no coast path, so you're carving out your own routes. I've been on the Isle of Mull, which was never in the original itinerary, but I hopped on and off and it worked.' The challenge is to do, on average, a marathon every day. Some days, depending on where the accommodation is, it might be a bit less; others a bit more, and he is not trying to clock good marathon times. 'I am not flat out every day. There's a lot of walking involved, a bit of jogging, a bit of running – a real mix. And I'm stopping a couple of times each day just to sort of rest up, if you like, have a coffee, a cake or whatever, and then get going again.' 'It's all about routine,' said James, who is from Devon and trained for his challenge on Dartmoor. 'It's all about getting up at the same time, leaving at the same time; it's a bit like going to work. I love the physical challenge, the idea of stretching myself physically. I'm not especially talented at things – you wouldn't want to play golf with me, you wouldn't want me on your football team. But I can keep going.' He is not following the sort of diet an elite athlete might adopt. When the Guardian spoke to him, James had eaten cereal, a bacon baguette, cake and was planning fish and chips for dinner, washed down with a couple of pints. The Exeter researchers assessed James before his departure and he sends data daily for them to analyse. They are studying his calorie intake, oxygen levels and muscle measurements to examine the effect of the challenge. He has lost about 10kg but the team has seen no ill-effects to his health. Freyja Haigh, a nutritional physiology researcher at the University of Exeter, said: 'Steve gives us a real insight into how this type of endurance impacts the body of an older person. We're unsure at the moment if Steve's weight loss is from fat or muscle mass.' James, who is raising money for Cancer Research UK and the Scouts, passes the time by listening to music and is also learning Cymraeg – Welsh. By the time he gets to Wales, he hopes to be able to order a pint in the language. He thinks the most difficult stretch physically will be the north coasts of Devon and Cornwall. 'I'm kind of hoping by then my body's completely acclimatised and I'll be able to cope with that.'
The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Horrendous blisters': Retired UK banker, 65, attempts to run 200 marathons in 200 days
The first fortnight was tough – terrible blisters, a flare of gout that needed a visit to A&E and the rapid realisation that running 200 marathons in 200 days around the coast of Great Britain would not be a walk in the park. But Steve James, a 65-year-old retired banker from Devon, has found his feet, and on Thursday reached the halfway mark – an average of 100 marathons in 100 days. 'In those first two weeks I was thinking: 'What have I done?'' James said. 'I've been running for 50 years and never get blisters – but I had horrendous ones for the first 10 days. My feet felt like they had been put in a vice and squeezed. The gout was a bit of curveball but the hospital prescribed some stuff and it went away. Now I feel fine.' James's progress along the coastlines of England, Wales and Scotland is being tracked by experts from the University of Exeter, who are keen to find out the effects of such an extreme challenge on an older person. He set off from Topsham, on the south coast of Devon, in April and headed to Kent in south-east England. He then ran north to John o'Groats in north-east Scotland and is on the Scottish west coast steadily working his way south. There is no set route. He has a plan but adapts and changes it. 'If you're in Devon and Cornwall and Wales, there is a clearly defined coast path. In Scotland there's virtually no coast path, so you're carving out your own routes. I've been on the Isle of Mull, which was never in the original itinerary, but I hopped on and off and it worked.' The challenge is to do, on average, a marathon every day. Some days, depending on where the accommodation is, it might be a bit less; others a bit more, and he is not trying to clock good marathon times. 'I am not flat out every day. There's a lot of walking involved, a bit of jogging, a bit of running – a real mix. And I'm stopping a couple of times each day just to sort of rest up, if you like, have a coffee, a cake or whatever, and then get going again.' 'It's all about routine,' said James, who is from Devon and trained for his challenge on Dartmoor. 'It's all about getting up at the same time, leaving at the same time; it's a bit like going to work. I love the physical challenge, the idea of stretching myself physically. I'm not especially talented at things – you wouldn't want to play golf with me, you wouldn't want me on your football team. But I can keep going.' He is not following the sort of diet an elite athlete might adopt. When the Guardian spoke to him, James had eaten cereal, a bacon baguette, cake and was planning fish and chips for dinner, washed down with a couple of pints. The Exeter researchers assessed James before his departure and he sends data daily for them to analyse. They are studying his calorie intake, oxygen levels and muscle measurements to examine the effect of the challenge. He has lost about 10kg but the team has seen no ill-effects to his health. Freyja Haigh, a nutritional physiology researcher at the University of Exeter, said: 'Steve gives us a real insight into how this type of endurance impacts the body of an older person. We're unsure at the moment if Steve's weight loss is from fat or muscle mass.' James, who is raising money for Cancer Research UK and the Scouts, passes the time by listening to music and is also learning Cymraeg – Welsh. By the time he gets to Wales, he hopes to be able to order a pint in the language. He thinks the most difficult stretch physically will be the north coasts of Devon and Cornwall. 'I'm kind of hoping by then my body's completely acclimatised and I'll be able to cope with that.'
