I’m a Celeb medic explains why contestants wear red socks

I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here returns to screens in the UK tonight, so with that in mind we’ve decided to revisit a question that many have asked over the years – why do all the contestants wear those strange red socks? Well, we have an answer for you.

It’s as much a feature of the early winter calendar as anything these days – as sure as the Coca-Cola truck signals the beginning of Christmas - you can navigate your year around the times when celebrities are sent to Australia – or Wales, remember? – to munch on some strange creepy crawlies and animal testicles.

So before everyone – actually let’s face it, just Matt Hancock – is plunged into vats of spiders, rats, and offal, let’s have a look into one of the more unusual yet inexplicable things about it.

Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy

Regular viewers will notice that the celebrities all wear red socks while they are in camp.

This isn’t just a uniform decision, but a decision based in something a lot more gross, according to a show insider.

He should know too, he’s the medic.

Bob McCarron worked on the show for years before hanging up his stethoscope this year, and he told Woman’s Own a few years ago that the socks are actually to cover up blood splatters from the many and varied blood sucking critters that live in the jungle.

ITV

Basically, one of the pitfalls of being in the jungle is that you will get bitten, you will pick up cuts and bruises, and they simply don’t want the celebs to look too much like they’ve been through the wars.

When the show gets underway tonight, there will be a whole host of celebrities donning the famous red socks for the very first time, including former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, as we’ve mentioned.

Joining him will be the likes of Boy George, former footballer Jill Scott, ex-rugby union player Mike Tindall, Corrie star Sue Cleaver, DJ Chris Moyles, and comedian Seann Walsh.

As well as that, we’ll have Love Island star Olivia Attwood, Hollyoaks star Owen Warner, Babatunde Aleshe, Charlene White, and Scarlette Douglas.

ITV

Of course, if you don’t know who all of those people are, you soon will.

We’ve got two weeks of this to look forward to.

Good luck with that, Matt.

It all gets underway at 9:00pm tonight on ITV.