I'm A Celebrity is not the sort of reality grieving Colin Hendry needs right now

By Darren Lewis

Published 15:32 10/11/09

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Colin Hendry's decision to go into the jungle so soon after his wife Denise's death is risky to say the least.

You only have to look at the way Gazza has been exploited by a string of TV companies looking to boost ratings to know that.

I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here will be Hendry's first major venture since losing his wife back in July.

But while the well-respected former Blackburn and Scotland defender may see it as something different to immerse himself in, reality TV shows are no respecters of personal circumstances.

He is in there simply because the TV execs WANT him to break down crying during his weakest moments.

Nothing would have them rubbing their hands with glee more than to see a former title-winning footballer at his most vulnerable, to generate the kind of newspaper stories that will have people who don't normally watch the show tuning in to see what the fuss is about.

They want him to be the kind of basket-case figure into which we saw Michael Barrymore degenerate (even further), or former East 17 singer Brian Harvey, who quit five days into the show which some say tipped him over the edge into the depression from which he suffers now.

Because that is what shows like that feed on. Notoriety and a morbid fascination with the kind of thing most of us watch through our fingers.

And yet we watch. Which is why Gazza's fall from grace has been told and retold. And why, when they can't squeeze any more out of the man himself, the TV companies move onto his daughter Bianca - inviting her on to Celebrity Love Island - and his wife and other children.

I am not a Blackburn fan, but Hendry served that club with distinction along with his spells at Manchester City, Dundee, Rangers, Coventry, Bolton and Blackpool.

And I'd hazard a guess that fans from all of those clubs would want to remember him that way rather than the way in which reality TV can depict you.

True, the abiding memory for many England fans is of Hendry being left on his bum by, ironically, Gazza at Euro 96 as the England talisman fired home one of the goals of the tournament.

But he remains respected in a football context, not least because of his achievement in helping Blackburn to win the Premier League - the only team outside the top four to do so - back in 1995.

Also because of his part in the Rangers squad which clinched the domestic treble in 1999.

In all, Hendry played more than 500 league games and, as a defender, scored more than 40 goals in a playing career spanning some 20 years. He also managed to win 51 caps for Scotland despite being a latecomer on the international scene, not making his debut until he was 27.

His achievements are there for all to see. And yet - as we have seen in the past with other figures - reality TV can change all that within the blink of an eye.

Witness the outspoken MP George Galloway, now notorious for asking Rula Lenska: 'Would you like me to be the cat?' in a role-play exercise on Celebrity Big Brother .

Or Danielle Lloyd, previously known as a harmless airhead before her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother - then shattering any TV opportunities she may subsequently have had with her allegedly racist treatment of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.

Or even Jan Leeming, whose stint in the jungle shattered her image as a respected former BBC newsreader and reinvented her as a shrieking, wailing, high-maintenance banshee that they couldn't wait to get rid of.

You have to wonder about the advice the 43-year-old former Clyde manager is receiving if - less than six months into the grieving process for his wife - he has agreed to step into such a lions' den.

Reality TV chews its daring participants up and spits then out with no consideration for the consequences.

Colin Hendry and those close to him would to well to bear that in mind. I'm A Celebrity doesn't begin again until Sunday. There is still time to pull out.