Love Island hit by race row after pics emerge of Anton Danyluk blacked up as Mr T

LOVE Island has been plunged into a race row after pictures emerged of contestant Anton Danyluk blacked up as Mr T.

The photos have caused outrage, with 2017 finalist Marcel Somerville calling for the 24-year-old Scot to be booted off the hit ITV2 dating show, which starts its fifth series tomorrow.

Gym-owner Anton, from Airdrie, is pictured on a Halloween night out with pals and colleagues in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, in 2013.

He is dressed as Mr T, aka black US actor Laurence Turead, 67 — famous for playing B A Baracus in the Eighties action series The A Team.

In photos on the Facebook page for Anton’s gym The Ranch, he is seen larking about in Mr T-style dungarees, clunky jewellery, a fake mohican and, controversially, black face paint.

A pal said: “Anton likes to be the life and soul of the party and his idea of having fun is having all the attention on him.

“He was proud of the effort he put in to the costume. He just thought it would be a good laugh.”

Rapper, DJ and producer Marcel, 33, a former member of pop’s Blazin Squad, was outraged by the photos.

He told the Sun on Sunday: “Blackface was a form of entertainment that comedians and actors used to do. But we all know it’s just not funny and simply not acceptable any more.

“In my opinion it hasn’t been acceptable for decades, so to hear that someone still thinks it’s OK to make fun of people’s skin colour is absolutely ridiculous. It’s racist, and for him to stay on the show now with no repercussions is not OK.

“Perhaps Love Island bosses should let his fellow housemates know about what he did. Then we can see if he still finds it funny.

“It doesn’t matter if you are dressing up as Mr T ‘for a laugh’ or pretending to be Al Jolson, there’s never an excuse for it. I find blackface extremely offensive and there’s no place for it in any situation.

“The Love Island bosses vet all contestants, but they must have missed this picture in his social media feed or they probably wouldn’t have let him on the show.”

The photos are even more surprising given that Anton’s mum Sherie Ann, whose family are from Myanmar, has experienced racism. She said: “At school people tried to bully me by calling me racist names.”

Sociology expert Professor Ellis Cashmore last night backed Marcel’s call for Anton to be shown the door.

He said: “ITV has to pull Anton from Love Island. If it doesn’t, it will be forever making apologies. Blackface covers up more than someone’s face, it conceals racism.”

Last year Love Island was criticised for its lack of diversity and accused of racial bias after Samira Mighty, 23, did not receive as much air time as white contestants.

A source said: “It does not look good for Love Island to have a contestant they have meant to have checked out posing in blackface. This will seriously offend a lot of viewers.”

It is the latest scandal to hit the show, now in its fifth series. There was fierce criticism of the poor support for contestants’ mental health after the suicides of Mike Thalassitis, 26, and Sophie Gradon, 32.

This week Anton, a self-confessed serial love rat, described himself as “hard-working and motivated . . .  I can be moody and I’m definitely an over-thinker”.

A pity he didn’t think a bit more before blacking up.

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