Singer Lucy Spraggan has said it feels “exhilarating” and “affirming” to be one of three contestants to have successfully completed the latest series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The 34-year-old, who made her name on ITV singing show The X Factor, completed the course alongside former footballer Troy Deeney and reformed drugs mule Michaella McCollum on Monday’s episode of the Channel 4 show.
She told the PA news agency: “It just feels exhilarating. Just feels like a really amazing achievement, really sort of affirming.
“I think in order to make it through the course, I think you have to have a genuine intention to get all the way. So, like, to me, I always had the intention to get all the way. That doesn’t mean that I always felt like I could. There were definitely times that you just think I can’t do this.
“I just wanted to do it for me. I wanted to to give it my everything and not waste an opportunity like that because it is such an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it’s a true privilege to do it.
“I really wanted to put it out there for strong small women, I’m 5ft 2in and I just hope people just know that my whole thing is about perseverance and resilience.”
The finale, which aired on Monday night, saw the five remaining recruits go through a series of interrogations which involved being held in stress positions and subjected to distressing sounds.
During the interrogation the recruits were required to maintain a story that they were previously given in the event of capture while the interrogators used psychological and physical punishments to try to get a confession.
Spraggan said the interrogation was the most difficult part of the course “by a country mile”.
She told PA: “Physically, I found things difficult to do and I was tested and things were really scary at times, but in terms of (the interrogation), you’re forced to sit for like 16 hours. We’ve been awake for 40 hours.
“You sit there with the bags on your head, goggles over your eyes and then they play these horrible sounds and you sit in the stress positions and obviously they can’t show you us doing that for 16 hours but that is just way worse than I can ever explain.
“During interrogation, I think you spend literally every couple of seconds thinking, ‘I just can’t carry on doing this’.”
The singer also described the challenge where she had to jump off a viaduct as one of the most difficult tasks she had to do throughout the course.
She added: “Taking that step backwards off the viaduct is pretty intense. I don’t really like heights, but I actually went after Michaella (McCollum) and I saw her do it and I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll have to do it now’.
“Michaella was my inspiration through a lot of it. She’s just so hardcore.
“The CS gas as well, that is way worse than I even imagined that that could go.
“I think you see about 20% on the TV, genuinely.”
Spraggan also revealed that she fainted while they were filming for the fourth episode, warning future recruits to “stay hydrated”.
She said: “It wasn’t shown but on episode four, just after the boat carry, I actually fainted. I was really unwell, and I nearly got medically withdrawn.
“So the only thing I would change is that I’d just stay a touch more hydrated, and actually maybe I’d have put on more weight before the show, because we all lost, like, I think Adam lost eight kilos. I lost five kilos. Like, I would have put on a bit more weight before.”
Spraggan is best known for her songs Last Night (Beer Fear), Lighthouse and Tea And Toast, and has had two UK hit singles and two UK top 10 albums.
The show sees celebrities enter SAS training, during which they are not eliminated and are instead culled by the directing staff or able to withdraw themselves, with those who remain at the end declared the winners.
All episodes of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins Series 7 are available to stream on Channel 4.
