He’s the tattooed, sharp-tongued pirate of reality TV, the man who survived TOWIE scandals, jungle trials on I’m a Celebrity…, and a thousand tabloid headlines without ever letting a single tear fall on camera. But on a freezing December morning in a quiet Essex rescue centre, Pete Wicks finally cracked.

In an exclusive first look at the Christmas special of Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake – the heart-wrenching ITVBe documentary series that’s become Britain’s unexpected weep-fest of 2025 – the 37-year-old is seen cradling a trembling, completely blind spaniel named Pickles as a young family from Romford sign the adoption papers. Pickles, abandoned on a motorway services in October after his elderly owner died, had spent 68 days in kennels, bumping into walls and whimpering every time the lights went out.

Then the little girl, eight-year-old Ava, kneels down, gently presses her forehead to Pickles’ and whispers, “You’re home now, boy. Merry Christmas.”

That’s when Pete lost it.

The camera catches it in brutal, beautiful close-up: the hard-man facade collapses. His trademark stubbled jaw trembles, his eyes flood, and he turns away from the crew, shoulders shaking as he tries – and fails – to pull himself together. “Sorry, mate,” he mutters to the producer, voice thick, “just… give me a second.” The mic still picks up the tiny, broken “f***ing hell” that escapes as he wipes his face on the sleeve of his black hoodie.

It wasn’t just Pickles. In the space of one snowy afternoon, three more blind or partially sighted dogs found their forever homes in scenes that feel scripted by the ghost of Charles Dickens himself.

There was Luna, a 12-year-old Jack Russell who lost her sight to diabetes and spent two years overlooked because “nobody wants an old blind dog.” A retired couple from Surrey, both registered blind themselves, arrived with a harness embroidered with Luna’s name. They’d followed her story on Pete’s Instagram all year. When Luna’s tail started helicopter-wagging the moment she heard their voices, Pete had to walk outside and stand in the rain for five minutes.

Then came Ralph, a lurcher born without eyes, who spent his first 18 months tied to a radiator in a puppy farm. A soldier recently blinded in Helmand province turned up with his fiancée. “I know what it’s like to wake up and not see the world anymore,” he told Pete quietly. “We’ll figure it out together.” The handshake that followed – two men who’ve both lost something irretrievable – lasted so long the cameraman had to zoom out.

And finally, little Mistletoe, a blind-and-deaf cavapoo surrendered because her breeder “didn’t want faulty stock ruining Christmas photos.” A family of five, including twin six-year-old boys who’d saved their pocket money for months, walked in clutching a stocking with her name on it. When Mistletoe snuggled into the mum’s neck and let out the first relaxed sigh anyone had ever heard from her, Pete was done. Full waterworks. No hiding it.

“I thought I was tough,” he says later, sitting on a hay bale in the kennel barn, eyes still red. “I’ve done reality TV for a decade, mate – I’ve had death threats, I’ve had my heart broken on national television, I’ve eaten kangaroo anus in the jungle. But watching these dogs realise they’re safe? That someone chose them even though they can’t see the world the way we do? That’s the hardest I’ve ever cried. Hands down.”

The festive special, titled A Christmas Tail, airs on ITVBe on 22 December at 9 p.m. and follows Pete as he personally funds emergency boarding for 27 blind dogs who faced euthanasia before the holidays. He’s spent over £68,000 of his own money this year on vet bills, specialist harnesses, and scent-marked toys – a fact he tried to keep quiet until the rescue manager accidentally let it slip on camera.

Since the first series aired in March, the show has triggered a 400% surge in applications to adopt blind dogs across the UK. Battersea Dogs & Cats Home reports that animals once labelled “unhomeable” are now top of enquiry lists. One rescue in Manchester even renamed its sensory garden “The Pete Wicks Wing” after he paid for the entire rebuild.

But nothing prepared the crew for what happened at the end of filming.

As the last family left with Mistletoe, the kennel fell silent except for the soft snoring of sleeping dogs. Pete stood in the empty runway, snow starting to fall, and looked straight down the lens.

“I spent years thinking love was messy and complicated and usually ended in tears,” he said, voice cracking again. “Turns out the purest love I’ve ever seen doesn’t need eyes at all. These dogs taught me that. And if this Christmas special makes even one person open their home to a dog that can’t see them… then every tear was worth it.”

Then he smiled – that lopsided, vulnerable grin that’s melted a million hearts – and added: “Also, someone get me a bloody tissue before I ruin my street cred forever.”

Too late, Pete.

Britain’s toughest softie has officially stolen Christmas – and every single one of us is sobbing into our mince pies because of it.

A Christmas Tail – 22 December, 9 p.m., ITVBe. Bring tissues. Lots of them.