Ahead of tonight's episode, Jennifer Zamparelli spoke with drag performer and broadcaster Paul Ryder about his short but memorable experience on RTE's Ultimate Hell Week - The Professionals. Listen back above.
Ultimate Hell Week – The professionals follows a ragtag group of sporting legends, TV stars, singers and comedians taken way out of their comfort zone as they attempt to pass a condensed version of Special Forces selection.
Over six days, the 20 celebrity recruits were required to pass numerous rigorous physical and mental tests. Surviving on two to three hours of sleep a night they will have to overcome cold-water events, height tests and claustrophobic challenges as well as various trials of strength, stamina and determination.
One such recruit was drag performer and broadcaster Paul Ryder who viewers saw leave the programme last week. Despite describing his time on the show as "torture", he told Jen that it was one of the most amazing experiences of his life.
"I live in a very airy-fairy, drag-related, nails, champagne and gorgeous life, right? So after COVID I was like, 'right, you need to stop this', but I wasn't going to join a football team and I wasn't going to join a rugby team so I said, 'I know, I'll sign up to Hell Week and that will really push me out of my comfort zone'."
And pushed out of his comfort zone he was. After just one day Ryder had to call it quits as his fear of water brought him to breaking point.
"I can't swim. I can't swim and I have a bad fear of water," he told Jen. "Kind of similar to Pamela [Uba], I was pushed into a pool as a child as a joke when I was away in Spain or something, and ever since then, I can barely get into a bath. I look at a sink with a bit of fear sometimes."
As fate would have it, the first challenge of the day had the recruits wading into strong currents on a freezing cold beach in Cork at 3am.
"I love how they're sneaky. The edit makes it look like we were there for about 45 minutes before I backed out. No. We were there for the guts of three hours. Billy Holland broke the door that they had to break through. They had to get a new door from somewhere else - you didn't see that in the edit!"
"I've done it now and I'm not going to bring out a swimwear range," he adds, laughing.
During his time on the show, Ryder was representing LGBT Ireland (lgbt.ie), a non-government funded charity that depends on donations.
"The list is endless as to what they do. They have support networks for parents, young teens, for everything - all in the encompass of the LGBTQ umbrella. They're whopper."
Listen back to Paul and Jen's full chat on RTÉ 2FM above.
