Celebrities come, celebrities go, some just stay there, some make a comeback some disappear, never to be seen again. Lynne Mortimer looks at 2018’s new faces.
Harry Redknapp, he’s a new one.
He was, of course, well known as a football manager before he went into the Australian jungle and came out crowned King of the Jungle.
It just goes to show age is no object when it comes to celebrity. Not that Harry wasn’t a public figure before I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! it’s just that he wasn’t a red carpet celebrity. He managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City ? a teenager living, for instance, in Diss, wouldn’t know much, if anything, about the man.
Now we all know him because he’s been in a jungle clearing with other celebrities and has proved the most popular. What does it mean? It means Harry will have many invitations, over the next 12 months to attend various functions and be hailed a celebrity.
Why did he win? Many cite his towering love for his wife, Sandra, as a factor.
Harry came over as a man with a gentle heart, someone who is not afraid to love. Will his new status endure? It rather depends on how much he pursues new opportunities... such as, perhaps, Big Brother, Celebrity Bake Off, Celebrity Masterchef etc
The leading British celebrities on Facebook in 2018 according to www.statista.com are Adele; Jason Statham; David Beckham; The Beatles; Coldplay; One Direction; Emma Watson; Pink Floyd, Gareth Bale; and Queen (the band). This shows a rather higher average age profile that we might have expected, at 37. I have taken the ages of the bands not the members of the bands to calculate this. One Direction, therefore, is eight. It takes the average down by around 10 years.
It seems the young set have moved over to Instagram where, in the UK David Beckham heads the list... and is the oldest of the top 10. His son, Brooklyn, at 19-years-old, is the youngest on the list. Here the average age of the 10 is 28.
There are many places in cyberspace where celebrities might lurk. Is it possible to remain in the spotlight if you do not have a presence on social media?
Also sharply brought into focus this year is actor Richard Madden. Fans of Sky Atlantic fantasy drama series Game of Thrones will know him as Robb Stark in the first three series. But it was the BBC1 series Bodyguard that brought him to the attention of millions more. As the Maverick bodyguard of the home secretary (Keeley Hawes), he and his buttocks gained fame. He is nominated for the best actor award in the 2019 Golden Globes and many of us may feel his rear should get its own trophy! (Rear of the Year awards in March)
The 2015 Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has been bigger than ever this year. If Nadiya was dough she would have risen spectacularly. After winning the contest, she started writing cookery columns for The Times magazine and has gradually increased her portfolio of television work and, this year, she launched her homeware range. One of the big successes of the last three years, she has also written six cook books and two works of fiction.
Strictly Come Dancing can be relied upon to turn a high profile into fame. It did it for political journalist John Sergeant, newsreaders Natasha Kaplinsky and Kate Silverton and this year it has done it for documentary maker Stacey Dooley. Strictly finalist Joe Sugg also has a whole new public persona to enhance his eight million plus audience on YouTube.
Now a lot of older people know who he is... as well as being Zoella’s brother. We will undoubtedly see more of him on TV in 2019 and of all the celebrities, his will probably be the most meteoric rise.
Stacey Dooley was known for her cutting-edge documentaries, talking to people around the world who are exploited or abused such as former child soldiers and victims of sex trafficking. She also talks to the exploiters and abusers. Will she become a red carpet regular? What are the chances?
Quite high because Stacey and Joe have already been signed up to co-present the BBC’s New Year’s Eve festivities. This year’s concert features ska legends Madness, who will perform some of their greatest hits live, and the Kingdom choir as the nation counts down to midnight.
Shiny Ayda Field is married to singer Robbie Williams and the husband and wife were both judges on this year’s series of The X Factor. Simon Cowell’s talent show may have falling audiences but he remains a huge brand and by sitting alongside him on the judging panel, Ayda has undoubtedly acquired more celebrity than her appearances on ITV’s daytime show Loose Women afforded her.
Dani Dyer, daughter of Danny, was an aspiring actor with the same name as her dad and a job in an Essex bar before she jetted off to ITV2’s Love Island and became a star.
Her bubbly personality and romance with Jack Fincham on Love Island captivated viewers but well before she flew out to Majorca she was filming in north Suffolk with Norwich-based filmmaker Steve Cutts.
The horror film Heckle was shot in Beccles in late 2017 and early 2018 and also stars Clark Gable III - the grandson of the Gone With the Wind heartthrob Clark Gable.
The ones to watch in 2019? Dani Dyer, Joe Sugg and Stacey Dooley.
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