Matt Hancock Paid £45k For Celebrity SAS Show – Here’s All The Photos & Videos So Far

Matt Hancock has described participating on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins as “one of the toughest things I’ve ever done”. The former Tory government Health Secretary, who recently also appeared on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, was paid £45,000 to be on the show.

The gruelling reality competition will return on Channel 4 on Tuesday, 26th September, at 9.30pm, before moving to Sundays at 9pm starting on 1st October. There will be seven episodes in total.

The directing staff — made up of ex-special forces officers Jason Fox, Billy Billingham MBE, Rudy Reyes, and Chris Oliver — will boss about and scream at 16 celebrities in the unforgiving jungles of Thung Ui, North Vietnam.

The show pits contestants against harsh environments all around the world in a shortened two-week long training course that is designed to replicate a number of elements of the actual United Kingdom Special Forces selection course; a notoriously difficult programme that has been known to claim the lives of those who take it on, although the training has been modified to prevent fatalities.

The show’s Directing Staff take the recruits through hostile and unforgiving warfare environments, while testing their mental and physical ability through a series of tests. Unlike many reality competition series, there are no formal elimination points; instead, contestants may be culled by the DS, voluntarily withdraw, or be removed for medical reasons at any point prior to completion.

Along with Hancock, this year’s cast includes pop stars Gareth Gates, Michelle Heaton and Siva Kaneswaran, as well as TV personality Danielle Lloyd, presenter Melinda Messenger, former footballer Jermaine Pennant, Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas, The Only Way is Essex‘s James ‘Arg’ Argent, Love Island’s Montana Brown, Teddy Soares, TOWIE’s Amber Turner, comedian Zoe Lyons, Coronation Street actor Kirsty-Leigh Porter, track athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton, and Paralympic cyclist Jon-Allan Butterworth MBE.

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Hancock, now an independent MP after being suspended by the Tory Party, said that he’d come to a place of self-reflection during filming in Vietnam.

With filming now over, he said of his time on the show: “Being on SAS was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.”

“It’s one of the toughest physical and mental things I’ve ever done. It really opens your eyes and makes you look into yourself.”

He continued: “After coming through the most challenging period as Health Secretary during the pandemic, I wanted to push my limits. It’s safe to say the course tested my resilience!”

A trailer for this year’s show was released yesterday, and showed Hancock being interrogated and tackled to the ground:

Hancock filmed Celebrity SAS before I’m a Celebrity, and declared in the MPs’ Register of Interests that he was paid £45,000 to appear on the Channel 4 show. According to reports, he received between £320,000 and £400,000 for his time on I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here.