It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload.
The podcast last week.
Nebne Hey, guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Denise Dreisdale, our first eliminated celebrity from I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here for twenty twenty four. Throughout her jungle journey, Denise undoubtedly made a mark on her camp mates, from her entertaining game of Ding or Dong that talk camp mates about her long and her illustrious career, to hosting a celebrity fashion show, and of course, bravely
taking on an inaugural eating trial called vom Appetite. Denise took the opportunity to raise awareness for her chosen charity, Gotcha for Life, whose mission is to inspire and enable people to build mental fitness, which is very important to Denise, who has a shared hope of a world where no
one worries alone. There are some fabulous stories shared by Denise on today's episode, and for the first time, we will talk about some shared memories from the eighties and nineties, from when Denise was a big part of my childhood and a side note, you will hear me talking about her boys, Pete and Robb, whose names I should probably highlight so that you know who we're talking about. Denise will reveal how many times she was asked to go
on the show and why she finally said yes. In twenty twenty four, we will unpack her time in the Celebrity Jungle and hear why she didn't tell more stories about some of her famous co stars like Ernie Sigley, Darryl Summers, Frank Holden just her name a few. You will get some interesting insights into why Denise has had a pretty tough attitude amongst a boys club of television executives, which will then include me highlighting the need to include
her in the Logis Hall of Fame. I'm also really delighted to hear Denise retelling a story about her mother's prank calls to Channel nine receptionists back in the day. There is actually so much to unpack with Denise. To hear about her jungle journey is quite amazing, but also to reminisce about a few things. So sit back and relax, guys, as we unpack Denise Dreisdale's time in the South African jungle.
Hello you all self, inch, how are you?
What an achievement? I don't know? I feel so is it a strange thing to say that I feel proud? I don't know. I'm in awe.
No, no, no, you can be proud of me. I'm proud of myself. I cannot tell you how glad I am to be out. I'm the most I'm the happiest big d that's ever been ever.
I think voting to keep you in there, and then I speak to other people that know you better than I do, and they were like, no, we want her out, we want to save her. How do we get her out of there?
It all worked out for the best. I was in there eleven days, eleven nights anyway, and eleven nights sleeping with eleven other people is enough for anyone. It's an only child.
I mean, I think it was very brave and it's something obviously new for you and something that you probably will never forget. But it's probably also something you'd never do again.
No, why you'll do it again. I've done it. I'm telling you. I had black bitch where black bit shouldn't be from the sawdust and the charcoal in the dummy up to the fire, eating in smoke and fire and dust and everything. I dropped the kettle the night that the storm was there and everybody was asleep, and I dropped the kettle and all the ash came out of the bloody fire and covered all the sleeping bags. Everything was going really well up until that moment.
Who was the most affected by that? Who got the most amount of what was it?
The theta? Yes, and he's the most gorgeous man. We had a good laugh together, like he's a really nice person.
How many times did you say no to this show? You know?
Oh? Oh, I don't know.
Pretty much every year, but I mean it was a bit close to that, wouldn't I.
Nearly every year? But when they ranked this time and I said no again, and then they came back and said, oh, circumstances have changed. What about if you go in a week later, which in retrospect was a bit I think I put myself behind the eight ball because they'd already had a week or ten days or something to bond. The reason being I did want to be away from home for a long time. As you know, I've spent many, many weekends, many nights away from home always your whole life,
and now I'm at my whole life. You're right, and at this stage in my life, I just want to be home with me, Doggie, my little d d.
I remember as a kid that you would this sounds ridiculous if you tell anyone, they'd say it's slave labor. But I remember you would go and you would get up a door like before dawn, like a's three or something ridiculous, drive to the studio and you'd record like five episodes and then you'd fly off to different states and film it again for different states. And I mean, thank god they then changed it Berney and Denis and not in Melbourne today and Sydney today. Is that right? Yeah?
We did in Melbourne today, in Sydney today, in Bristone today, until they finally worked out that they could do a national show and we just did the five to the whole of Australia. But it took I think it took about two years. Yeah, and Ernie and I'd be on the plane anyway.
You worked out how to sleep on the plane. I think that was why how you made away.
Not really not, I don't really know. It's still a bad sleeper always.
I can't tell you how many women though that I spoke to about you being in the jungle, including my mum and other women around your age, And you had Australian women again thinking that they can do more, which I think has been a part of your brand your whole career. We've always made people feel like they could do more than they think they could.
Yeah. I've done a couple of things like splash that was a disaster that I did it because I thought I wanted grandmas to get out there in their basis. So I have done things. But I think women in general now are so out there and doing things zumba classes and everything, and good luck to them. Get out there and do it, don't sit home, use it or lose it. I've lost a few things.
Hey, haven't we all? I think we've all lost our minds a little bit more.
You haven't lost anything. I suppose the people listening to this know that I used to look after you when you were little. Yeah, yeah, bo, you were a bugger. I was the worst, absolute bugger. Do you know that? Well, you weren't the worst kids, you were just sensitively.
I was a very sensitive kid. And do you know what was funny because the last time I caught up with you, and my brother was there, and Pete and Rob were there, of course, and I remember someone said, oh, who was the worst out of the four of us? And I'd rewritten history and thought that I was the best and I was the easiest of the lot, and that you know, I was a great child.
No, no, you weren't.
I was the worst. You were like, no, no.
Just an absolute bugger you were. But it was okay because I sort of was able to get through to you. You are young, seven or something, and you were going through bits and pieces. But I was able to get through to you most of the time, except for the time on sin Kilda Beach when you said I want to get out of the car, and then you took off, and then for the next hour I wouldn't get back in the car. I'm driving the car along and killed the breach trying to get you in. I've got three
other kids in the car. See I remember everything.
Oh no, I'm hoping that over time that you'd sort of forgotten instead of reimagined me. I did think that there was no change. No, No, you'd ever go on a plane with me ever again. After we flew to Los Angeles and I threw up on the plane the whole way there. I remember thinking, this lady is ready to throw me out the cargo door.
Oh god, I remember that trip. So yeah.
Well, I love catching up with your boys, and it was actually interesting. I was talking to both of them last night, you know, as you were eliminated, and they were just so thrilled by the way. I'm sure you've spoken to them, but they were just so thrilled that you hadn't hurt yourself and you were coming home.
That's right. The only thing people said this, I said, I'm going into the jungle. Oh, for God's sake, don't hurt yourself. You know what I did. I sprained a muscle. I sprained a muffle the third day, but you did on the lob and it was dawn further than I thought. And I've gone down with conflict.
Well, anyway, I said to Bob's, I was like, I know Alex mavdykis and I've told him that if anything happens to you, he's in so much trouble. And I said, so, I'm worried about the challenges, and Bob's was like, I don't care about the challenges. I'm worried about her acting a damn fool in the campsite and jumping up on something that's not stable. That's all he was.
Yeah, that's all. I was worried about it. For god, you know, I don't do anything stupid. But anyway, I didn't do anything stupid, but all on the camp, Oh my god, I have a home in the arm chair and looking at the show and thinking I want to get in there and clean it up. You can't. You just can't. It dirt everywhere, and you know I'm rather a clean person, so I just it was very That was the hardest part to dirt and the dummies.
You said to me, if you ever did it, you would get You said, I'm going to make a broom out of the palm leaves and I'm going to sweep that camp. And I was thinking, oh, it's like one of those things where you make a clean spot and then you'll be there all day.
I did make a fly spot for FRANKIEO because he was obsessed with did go around go and he camped the flyers that he killed was I made it out of from there was a broom there already. I didn't have to make one of those.
You know, I don't want to know and shame anyone. But I know you well enough to know that I could see the people that you would connect with, and I knew Callum was going in there, so I knew you'd be fine with Callum. He's such a lovely, genuine person.
Hey, that's the word genuine. He's gorgeous, gorgeous guy and speaks so well of his parents and everything. And I know he's out there and he MUCKs around, well your mental he's looking and thinking, who's this old dealer in the corner that's just arrived. Yeah, And then after a couple of days, I'd be talking to him and he goes what that means, and I'll explain it and he'd go, oh, and he's lave. So we got on really, really well. He's a lovely boy.
There's a lot of people saying online that they'd love to see a spinoff series with you, and I was reading it's this morning. We're saying, you know, well, I think it'd be great. Denise could have Callum over and you know, you could show him how to cook and look after animals, and then he could take you out to the nightclubs at nighttime, I said.
To came. He came over to me. I said, my pants are still with I said, I said, that's because you've got them hanging He had them hanging together, like the pants there's no air going in. So I put him on the fronds for him and it's, you know, just it was just fine. It was just lovely. I loved it. I could mother somebody.
But I was going to say, though, you always had a very good bullshit detector, And so I wondered where your bullshit detector came from, because I have a theory that it might have been from growing up in the pot Melbourne pub which your mum and dad owned. Did that have something to do with being able to work out?
Thing? Is I grew up I had to look after myself in the pub because there were customers there that used to say, here's a packet of razor blades, go and play in the traffic. That was when I was about eight. So I learned to cope with that. And I don't know, I think that's where I got a bit of the don't mess with me, or you know, I won't put up with anything At work, I don't take it home. If there's a problem, I fix it up.
And so maybe that's part of what you're talking about out she can sum up people after a while, you know, you know who's putting on a show, you know who's doing what for what you just do. It's a different world. And I'll tell you my surprise was s guy I saw a sky the first couple of shows. I was home, so brave, so wonderful. And then when you talk to her, she's a really lovely girl. I did ask her where she puts her ribs. She must put him in a bag, definitely not in that body.
She once came we went out for a night out, and she came back to our place and she stayed at our house for three nights. I had to bring her mum and tell her mom to come and get us to get her because she'd basically.
Moved before her baby.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. She hadn't met her hadn't met her partner, and she hadn't had some boobs done and that you know, she's got the wrong plumbing for Ben and I. But she came out and she showed us her boobs and asked us whether or not we thought they needed to be fixed. She said one boob was smaller than the other. Ben and I just was looked at her in horror. Lovely person, but we just couldn't believe how she's.
Got a brainess smarter than anything you know, and so don't be de sleep by looks. I think that's the perfect thing to sum up about.
Guy, Well she's going to do well. I think that it's between Calluman's. Guy, do you have a pick on who you think can win?
I just couldn't even pick it, wouldn't pick it. So that was a sort of game we play and you go around and go oh no, no, and then no, you couldn't do it.
I thought we might get a few more signature stories from you with because I mean, you've had some pretty amazing co hosts your whole career, and I was expecting to hear more about Ernie and Darryl and Burton Frank Holden. I wondered whether or not you worry these days about offending people because it's not just your story at someone else's. Did you worry about opening up and talking about some of those people that you've worked with right now?
No? No, because no, no, no, I would have talked about most things. A couple of things I don't talk about. But the thing is that the opportunity didn't come up. There's people in there that really they know the name, but they oh, idea would have done so that was okay. I just I did the best that I could.
I still do your chalk dance to people at a party on U set. That's one of my I don't even do it as well as you. But when I watched in the episode last night that you did do the chalk dance and they didn't really understand it, I was devastated. That and bacon and ex that's what I get out on Saturday night to entertain people after a couple of drinks. Except my bacony, I looked as good as.
You, trying to muck around for the cameras and whatever. We're in camp and it's a bit quiet. I don't think anyone even looked. I just I think they might be glanced over and look the otherwise.
That's okay too, that's okay too.
Maybe they don't love chicken.
Did you do the bacon and eggs? I mean, this is a podcast, so we kind of.
Still do it.
You still do that much.
I still do it on stage and I'll get applause for getting up off the floor. That's when you know you're officially old. You know.
One of my favorite memories of you was, I remember I loved when we go away and we'd be with your mum and I used to go and give her a brandy for lunch and go around and oh god, and turn off all the televisions because she believed that if she left all the televisions on the network that you were currently on, that it was giving the network ratings. So you'd walk through the place right all the TVs would be on in the house and I'd turn them off.
She used to. And you've got to remember she used to ring the whatever channel I was onto the receptionist and do all different accents. Oh you didn't, it's a job. She's on the television. I love her. She's a really lovely girl. I'm so glad she's on the television. And then she'd hang up and ring in her high you know. And you know Paddy Newton and mom Paddy Newton's mum Eunice, and they used to ring each other and they'd say
who are you watching? And un say I'm watching Bert at the moment, so Mom would turn over to Ernie and I and then they'd work out if you turn over at ten o'clock, I'll go. Mum will go over to Burt and come over to Ernie and Denise. You know, so they were mastering the whole television.
I mean, it was so cute. I mean, I don't think anyone ever told her not to do it. I just were turning off the power because I was worried that, you know, we were burning electricity.
We'll leave them on. We'll leave them on the ratings. You'll go up.
My favorite thing about you was watching The Golden Girls. Back in the day. Used to have a videotape of the Golden Girls outtakes, and I'll never fold how much you would laugh at that video. You would laugh until I thought you were going to have a stroke.
And I still read when Betty White was talking about the fleet circuits and the others in the others at the table would just could not hold themselves together. It's one of the funniest things. I can't find it.
Sorry to interrupt the chapter, Denise, but please go and watch this clip. It's actually available on YouTube. So I did find it. I was going to include it on the podcast, but I worried about the copyright. And also the clip is actually very visual, so type in the Great Herring War on YouTube. It's a Golden Girl's clip and just to imagine Denise laughing along with it, I think it'll make it seems just that little bit more funnier.
You know.
But before I let you go, the one thing I wanted to talk to you about was just the need for you to be in the Hall of Fame for the logis and I have been talking to so many other journalists in the last twelve months who are championing for this to happen. Is that something? I mean, it's to me it seems so strange. There's so very few women that are in the Hall of Fame. Do you think it's now time?
There was a bit of a movement for more women in the Hall of Fame when about three or four years ago, because the only one was Ruth Kracknel, But now there's Nony Ninny Hazelhurst. Then there's Tech Yeah, gury Aiden. Is that it?
That's three?
I mean?
But also you've been on television no offense to carry on Kenney at all, but you've been on TV longer than I mean, you've clocked more man hours in television than she has. So like the matter, I don't think so, you don't think so.
No, No, I don't think that. No, she diets midday show for a long time. No, she's not up a hell of a lot of television. But the thing is, there's so many worthy people out there that have been around for a long time. So I feel very honored that people talk about me in that respect. But it's fine. I've got my stamp. Me being on a stamp was the best thing I had never ever entered my head that I would be on a staff. I thought it was a reserved for mountaineers and sports people and people
like that. So when I got the stand, that was, you know what. I was so sorry Mom and Dad put around to see that. They would have been loved over. They would have been over the moon. So yeah, I've got that. I'm happy. I've got a lovely life, love my kids, love my drank kids, love my dog, love my house. What more can a woman ask for to get?
I don't even think it's about you anymore. It's about like, let's start recognizing some of the women in Australian television. Yeah, I don't know. I think that it's about getting you recognized to lead the charge for some others, which you know, you've been elblazer your whole life. I mean, why wouldn't it be you to start a movement that direct.
Well, that's lovely. Thanks for saying that. Thank you. I appreciate that's lovely. Lovely.
Okay, well, well the fan and try and make that happen. But you know, I was going to ask you, do you reckon Carrie? Anne's going to call you and ask you about your jungle experience. Would you ever talk to her?
I don't think, because I don't think that that's the call that I'll be making.
Or she'll be making, not anytime soon.
No, no, No, she's happy, she's happy doing what she's doing.
Well, I have to let you go because I'm getting close to my time. Something that I ask everyone who joins the podcast. I think this is episode four hundred, so it's kind of well, I think it's amazing that I'm chatting to you at this at this point. But I ask everyone when I finished the podcast, what's something from behind the scenes, something behind the scenes of your time, and I'm a celebrity because that's what we're talking about.
It's kind of like a fun story that maybe we didn't get a chance to see on the telly.
There wasn't a lot of fun. Let me think, Let me think, I sleep on the rocks, which is funny. And when you see, when you when you see me in those boots, those steel blue boots, the way about a kilogram each boot, and that made me feel so awkward. And so when we go down to the three I've got and everybody's going now, bab begable, big canal, And of course every time they say be careful, big temdful, I look and the next thing I've slipped on one
of the rocks. That in itself, me walking in those boots is just funny.
Can you imagine the insurance.
I can't give you an I can't give you anything. I'm sorry, I know what you want. I'm sorry, I can't give you anything more than that.
No, no, no, that's great, amazing. You had some friends in there, like Tristan. I love Tristan the real world, and he's a lovely guy.
Well I knew he was lovely when we worked on studio ten, but I didn't realize how lovely he's. He's just been an inspiration to everybody in there. I really there's there's fairness in the world. World. I'd love to see him win.
Okay, well that's good. That's the worst we've got you to you say I think should win. Well, I'm going to let you go and thank you so much for you for being so generous with the