Two stars of ITV’s hit reality show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! have been charged in Australia with cruel and inhumane treatment of the programme’s viewers.

The overall winner – TV chef Gino D’Acampo – and fellow contestant Stuart Manning were questioned by police after allegedly performing humiliating publicity stunts and making inane conversation for three weeks in front of millions of witnesses.

One viewer, Debbie Reynolds, was scuttling tamely around her house when she had the misfortune to walk past the television, which she had inadvertently left tuned to ITV1. “It was just torture,” she said. “I felt like I had been beheaded, skinned and cooked in a risotto. It really was that bad.”

Australia’s RSPCA observes tight rules on the prevention of cruelty to audiences, and sent trained staff to observe filming of I’m a Celebrity. However, officials were not warned about key segments of the show that were likely to cause unnecessary pain and distress to those unlucky enough to see them.

Inspector Michael Dundee told Cultsha: “The producers cannot go ahead without notifying us when there is a possibility of the on-air death of a career. Neither is it acceptable to use ratings as an excuse for the wanton killing of the televisual medium.”

The charges centre on incidents that occurred after the contestants were split into two groups, one of which was in ‘exile’, forced to subsist on meagre amounts of talent. ITV admitted it had given the go-ahead for contestants to kill off their remaining dignity, without first clearing it with the authorities. Producers of the show apologised for the oversight, admitting they were not aware that permission was required in advance if passages of the show were likely to make a little part of the viewer die inside.

Despite the admission, Australian police said there were no plans to bring charges against the show’s producers. D’Acampo and Manning, meanwhile, have both been issued court attendance notices for February.

Bookmaker Paddy Power is offering odds of 1000/1 that the pair will be sentenced to death if found guilty, however Dundee warned that this would not end the spate of cruelty. “You can cut the head off one, but on average you’re still never more than 20 feet away from a feral, talentless C-list celebrity.”