Mr And Mrs meets I’m A Celebrity in BBC1’s entertaining new reality show Unbreakable, which pitches new couples against long-married ones to see whose partnerships are the strongest.
Comedian Rob Beckett hosts the six-part competition, which puts six celebrities and their partners through a series of mental and physical challenges, and he gets to watch on as the couples bicker and make up while working together against their rivals hoping to win the first Unbreakable Couple title.
Passing judgement alongside him and examining the undercurrents of the celebrity pairings are relationship experts Anjula Mutanda and Maria McErlane, who award points for each challenge – with couples eliminated as the show progresses.
Comedian Rob Beckett hosts the six-part competition, which puts six celebrities and their partners through a series of mental and physical challenge
There are both laughter and tears as they stumble and fail, and also some surprisingly emotional moments as the couples open up about the struggles within their relationships.
‘I’m obsessed with people and family and partner dynamics,’ admits Rob, a married father-of-two. ‘I love nothing more than leaving a party and gossiping with my wife Lou about the other couples and how they behaved, or how their kids behaved. This show is perfect for that as it puts all kinds of pressure on the different couples to see how they react. I was surprised by how competitive they all were, they all really wanted to win.
‘Relationships are about teamwork. Life is hard and some days it all gets too much. That’s when you need your partner to step up and look after you and take control. Then you can return the favour when they don’t feel too good. Who doesn’t like to see celebrities and their partners put to the test under pressure? It was an amazing experience to film and I’ll never be able to unsee Denise Welch falling into a lake, Simon Weston blindfolding his wife in a maze or Shirley Ballas getting a tattoo.’
One of the couples is Charlie Mullins, the millionaire founder of Pimlico Plumbers, and his singer girlfriend RaRa, who’ve been together for just 18 months
Strictly judge Shirley took up the offer of having a tribute to her actor boyfriend Danny Taylor inked on her back in one of the challenges.
The couples are certainly a mixed bag. There’s a 37-year age gap between Charlie Mullins, the millionaire founder of Pimlico Plumbers, and his singer girlfriend RaRa, who’ve been together for just 18 months after meeting on a beach in Marbella, while Falklands War hero Simon Weston and his wife Lucy have been married for 32 years and have three children.
‘Before you do something like this you think there’s nothing you don’t know about each other after all this time, but taking part just proved to us that even though we’re individuals, we need and want to do things together,’ says Simon. ‘We’d never done anything like this before and it was far out of our comfort zone.’
Strictly judge Shirley took up the offer of having a tribute to her actor boyfriend Danny Taylor inked on her back in one of the challenges
The other couples are Loose Women panellist Denise Welch and artist husband Lincoln Townley, comedian Stephen Bailey and his lawyer boyfriend Rich Taylor, and Olympic BMX racer Shanaze Reade and her event organiser girlfriend Teddy Edwardes.
And from the start, it’s clear it won’t be an easy ride for any of them. The couples have to work together to make their way across a lake (cue some hilarious drenchings), write some beautiful words about each other and change song lyrics to reflect their relationship – then recite them before doing a bungee jump.
There’s also a Big Brother element to the show, with all the couples filmed eating together, and they’re surprisingly open as they ponder the meaning of relationships.
While the physical challenges tested them, the hardest part for many of the couples was opening up about their relationships.
Falklands War hero Simon Weston and his wife Lucy have been married for 32 years and have three children
‘The physical side of things was tough because we’re old, but at times, especially for Lucy, things were emotional,’ says Simon. ‘There were topics she hadn’t spoken about in public before.’
Shirley feels the same way. ‘I think Danny would agree the emotional challenges were the hardest for us both – but they really showed me the importance of working through these things together and how best we could support each other.
‘Those challenges really strengthened us as a couple, and that was one of the best things to come out of the show,’ adds Shirley, who’s been married twice before but says she’d love Danny, who’s 13 years younger, to propose.
‘I learnt that Danny is a lot smarter than I gave him credit for and that we work really well together as a team. I learnt a relationship constantly needs work from both sides. Appreciation and communication are the key.’
Whoever wins, for many of the couples the experience proved that they really were unbreakable. Charlie and RaRa got engaged after filming the show, while Denise Welch says it reinforced the strength of her relationship, which has been through several challenges including deciding to go sober together.
‘Lincoln struggled most with his fear of heights, while I struggled with my fears of being under water and of maths,’ says Denise. ‘The show reinforced that we prefer to do things together and that now includes working. We’ve always seen ourselves as an unbreakable couple and it was nice to show that to other people because many have doubted us.’
Unbreakable, Thursday, 8pm, BBC1.
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