Coronation Street’s Ali Mardell has said she is proud of her on-screen father Simon Gregson’s performance on I’m A Celebrity – and wants the soap star to be in the final.
The actress plays Emma Brooker in the long-running ITV soap, the daughter of Steve McDonald, Gregson’s character.
Gregson, 47, entered the campsite at Gwrych Castle in North Wales as a late arrival alongside Eastenders star Adam Woodyatt, and the pair were soon made lords of the castle.
Swapping soap life for Castle life, Simon Gregson and his self proclaimed 'delicate bowels' are headed for Camp 🏰 #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/iImW4hFgzZ
— I'm A Celebrity… (@imacelebrity) November 24, 2021
Mardell said: “I’m actually not voting for him for trials but I’m definitely voting for him to stay in there, he’s got to be there till the end.
“But hopefully, I’ll get to see him soon and catch up on all the stories, but not too soon because I want him in the final.”
The actress said she had been missing working with Gregson, but was proud of her Corrie co-star because he is “just being himself”.
She added: “His little laugh makes me laugh because it’s just the same as when we’re at work.”
Gregson, who first appeared on the cobbles in 1989, has opened up about his career while on I’m A Celebrity.
The Coronation Street stalwart admitted he had originally planned to race cars or fly planes when he was younger but joined the ITV series around age 14 and had been acting in it for the last 32 years.
Reflecting on how fame had been challenging, he said: “It was difficult for a while to adjust.
“This isn’t what I planned for myself and I do not like it. I hated it. The fame side of it I hated it. I still don’t (like it).”