Radio 1’s Dean McCullough took Melvin Odoom to one side, and squared up to him for ‘upsetting’ him with the infamous ‘Houdini’ nickname on I’m a Celebrity

Melvin Odoom, 44, is well known for his sense of humour, but it turns out one of his jungle campmates – Dean McCullough, 32 – didn’t find his jokes very funny.

Dean is set to confront Mlevin on I’m A Celebrity… Coming Out, which airs on Friday at 9pm. Dean and Melvin both work at BBC Radio 1, and fans were sure that the duo would get on like a house on fire in the jungle. In contrast, the duo seemed to get on better with other celebs, and Melvin couldn’t resist making a couple of jibes about Dean’s less than ideal work ethic when it came to chores around the camp.

Melvin and Dean were teamed up to collect water for the camp during their time on the ITV show, but Dean had plenty of complaints about the task. “It’s an awful job and I hate it and I don’t want to do it anymore… Guys I can’t. It’s not for me,” he moaned.

Melvin dubbed Dean ‘Houdini’ for disappearing during chores, and Dean called the radio star out for upsetting him with the viral nickname ( 
Image:
ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
After the other campmates told Dean to pull his socks up, Melvin also jokingly made a dig about Dean’s ability to be out of reach when it was time to fill the buckets. “Listen, your new name is Houdini because you like to disappear,” he said.

While Dean didn’t seem upset about the comment at the time, he voiced his issues with Melvin on I’m A Celebrity… Coming Out. After seeing their families, the duo bumped into each other. Dean said to his colleague: “I love how the whole Houdini popped off, the memes were brilliant.”

“I don’t think people realised why that happened, I was busy doing the water thing, I just wanted you to help so I was thinking I’m just gonna drop this line with half the camp there, make everyone laugh,” Melvin responded.

The tone of their chat then took a turn, with Dean confiding in Melvin: “I wish you had told me, that upset me,” to which Melvin said: “If I’m trying to give someone a message, I always use humour, that’s my number one way of communicating with people, that’s essentially my weapon, and that’s all that was.”

“I saw Bush Telegraphs of you saying, ‘Oh, it’s another chore to ask Dean to do the chores,’” Dean insisted, with Melvin explained: “Me calling you Houdini was my way of telling you I need help, when we said, ‘Let’s do the water’, I came up the steps and you were having a shower, when I came down you were folding your clothes by the bed, by the time I said, ‘Houdini’ that was me saying, ‘I need help’.”

Dean then said that it would have been better for Melvin to “take him to the side,” with Melvin reiterating that it was no big deal. Dean again hinted that he was upset by the title, and Melvin jokingly concluded the deep discussion: “Okay. I’ll know for next time we’re in the jungle carrying buckets of water.”