The Krankies fear signing up for reality TV show could end their careers

The Krankies say no to reality TV shows.

The Krankies have told how money just can’t tempt them on to I’m A Celebrity.

The ITV series starts next week and is filmed virtually on the duo’s doorstep in Australia. But despite being approached twice, Ian and Janette Tough say reality TV life just isn’t for them.

“They keep asking if we want to do it but I like my own bed too much, so we tell them to bog off,” says Janette, 67.

“We’ve also been asked to do Big Brother three times and even Celebrity Wife Swap.”

Husband Ian says the answer will always be no as they fear signing up could be a career-ending decision.

“Reality shows offer a lot of money, that’s how they tempt people,” confides Ian, 67.

“But it can be total destruction. We were advised that we could ruin more than 45 years in the business by being edited the wrong way.

“You can have people thinking, ‘Oh, I thought they were nicer than that’.

“You’re at the mercy of an edit, what goes out and not what’s actually happening in the jungle. Or it happens in Big Brother if they decide to sacrifice you.

“Freddie Starr said to me he nearly lost his marriage through Celebrity Wife Swap.

“Christopher Biggins told us that everyone would recognise us if we did I’m A Celebrity but everybody does anyway.”

The couple spend four months of the year at their apartment on the Gold Coast, playing golf, cycling and heading to the beach for an afternoon swim. Most of the rest of the year they’re at their home in Torquay.

“We love it down there and we always get our wee bit of Scotland when we head to the local newsagent and get our Sunday Post,” chips in Janette.

For the past few years the final part of every year and the reason we’re catching up in the plush surroundings of the boardroom at the SECC has been spent in panto in Glasgow.

They’re back again this year, packing in up to 3,000 happy punters a show at the Clyde Auditorium. The duo can’t wait to have a giggle again with John Barrowman on Cinderella.

Singer and actor Barrowman will be swapping filming US drama Arrow for Glasgow, arriving just in time for rehearsals.

“It’s an odd partnership,” admits Ian. “Putting us together in the first place was the idea of the producers Qdos. Everybody said it was a mad idea and would never work.

“But we get on really well. He’s not precious and is up for a laugh. Some people aren’t like that. It’s always great to be back and it’s easier to do comedy in your own dialect.

“John’s accent can be Scottish or American, he played the whole thing Scottish last year.

“He says it’s like working with his mum and dad because we talk exactly the same. And I make him some soup every day.”

Few acts can know panto as well as the Krankies and over the years they’ve shared a festive stage with a host of big names. All good?

“We did it with Leslie Grantham one year. Enough said,” smiles Janette.

“He was the one we didn’t gel with. We only had one scene with him. I think he wanted to be the comic.”

It’ll be 50 years next year since the pair first met at Glasgow’s Pavilion theatre in Christmas 1965. The following March they formed an act.

“Not this act it was awful,” laughs Ian. Janette’s little Jimmy character didn’t come along until the start of the 1970s.

Telly fame came through old favourites like Crackerjack but a quiet period followed the heady days.

“It got to a stage in the 1990s when we were ridiculed, it wasn’t cool to like the Krankies,” says Ian.

“But we came through that and it’s good now. We get a lot of mentions.

“David Walliams tweeted Sheridan Smith recently saying she was very good at playing Cilla but when were the pair of them going to do the Krankies?”

It’s a bizarre prospect, but probably no less surreal than seeing Hollywood star Barrowman giggling uncontrollably with the Krankies at the Armadillo.

“We don’t know how many more years we’ll do it,” adds Janette.

Would it leave a void?

“Aye, a financial one!” says Ian.

Cinderella, Clyde Auditorium, December 13 to January 4.