TELLY hardman Ross Kemp has been shot at by ISIS snipers, spent time in the world’s toughest jail and faced bloodthirsty cocaine cartels – but he finally met his match with a pesky housefly.
The soap star-turned-telly host is no stranger to dodging bullets and now he’s swerving fibs on his teatime quiz Bridge of Lies.
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However, the BBC hit was flung into chaos after a FLY wreaked havoc on the set of the Glasgow-based show.
The programme was abruptly halted after a winged creature pestered host Ross as he swiped the insect away from his head.
Production staff scrambled to capture the critter but were forced to admit defeat after the pest took flight.
A TV insider said: “Thankfully, this uninvited guest wasn’t too much of a buzz kill, we managed to wing it and quickly got the show back up and running.”
Ross took the helm of Bridge of Lies in 2022 and the show has been a fan favourite ever since.
The show presents contestants with a series of general knowledge statements and they must identify which one is a lie
And telly fave Ross admitted a shift in the studio is a million miles away from some of his other nail-biting expeditions.
He said: “The game show was a challenge and something different. I went off to the Kalka Mountains with Colombian special forces blowing up cocaine labs and this couldn’t be more opposite if you tried.
“I’ve got luxuries here, if I were out in the jungle somewhere, there would be no Barocca and there would be no honey.”
He added: “A quiz is the last thing I would ever have thought I would ever do.
“But on the day I was sent the script, I just could visualise it, I could see it happening, I could see myself in the seat, driving it.
“And so we met, we talked it through and I realised STV were a pretty good company to work with, and I still think that. I love coming up here and working.”
Ross shot to fame with his portrayal of iconic bad boy Grant Mitchell in EastEnders on and off from 1990 – returning recently for the 40th anniversary celebrations.
He appeared alongside Steve McFadden, who played hardman brother Phil, as well as the late, great Barbara Windsor, who took on the role of Mitchell family matriarch and Queen Vic landlady Peggy.
However, soap queen Barbara sadly lost her long battle with Alzheimer’s, aged 83, in 2020.
And Ross emotionally recalled how he thinks about his on-screen mum on a daily basis.
He said: “I talk to her on a regular basis. I wrote her eulogy – it took me two days to write it. I use a pen and paper and, as I was writing her eulogy, my pen ran out. When I was reaching for a new Biro, a card got caught under my fingernail.
“It was a note attached to some flowers she’d sent me, it read ‘Thank you darling, love you, Bar’. I didn’t even know that was up there. I must have just thrown it up there at a random moment.
“I rang her husband, Scott said, ‘You won’t believe what just happened’. I often think of her. She was a true friend.
“She was incredibly funny, incredibly gossipy, had a wicked sense of humour, but she was also a very caring person. She’s always in my thoughts.”
However, in recent years, he has swapped Watford for Glasgow to film the game show and now he looks forward to returning to the city for each series.
He laughed: “I’m not looking for trouble here, I’m just looking to have a good time.
“I think Glaswegians have sort of taken to me or adopted me in some way, and I’m happy with that.
“The reaction I get here is not the same as I get in other cities around the UK.
“I’m not going to mention those cities, but some of them are less friendly, and this is a particularly friendly city for me. I get people shouting at me ‘big man’ and all that stuff.”
Celebrity Bridge of Lies returns to BBC One and iPlayer for a brand new series on, Saturday, May 3
