SHE still doesn't know why she agreed to take part. Christine Hamilton just wishes she could take along a few cases of chilled white wine. The self-styled battleaxe is one of eight celebrities swinging into action later this month in a new live show where Survivor meets Big Brother.
I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! will drop them by helicopter in one of the world's most inhospitable locations - a jungle in a remote part of Australia.
Ant and Dec then host a series of live nightly programmes direct from the North Queensland location where the celebs will live in an environment featuring searing heat, deadly snakes and highly poisonous spiders. Well, it is all in aid of charity.
Viewers will single out one of the celebrities in each programme to undertake a gruelling trial which determines whether the group eat or not. The audience will also control who returns home early - and who is eventually crowned king or queen of the jungle.
Joining Christine on ITV1 from Sunday August 25 will be actor Darren Day, society girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, DJ Tony Blackburn, ex-boxer Nigel Benn, comic Rhona Cameron, model Nell McAndrew and paranormalist Uri Geller.
An Aussie adventure
The wife of former Cheshire Tory MP Neil Hamilton can't remember the last time she spent a night apart from her husband. She says her mother Megan isn't pleased about the forthcoming Aussie adventure.
"My mother is not at all happy about it and I know she is very worried. She is 88 years old and doesn't want me on the other side of the world for three weeks unable to communicate with her every day. She is going to miss me dreadfully and I know I will miss her - I already feel guilty about leaving her.
"Neil is perfectly relaxed about it and has always supported anything I wanted to do. I wouldn't do it if he had minded. I know he will miss me hugely and, as we are very close, it is difficult to imagine spending any length of time without seeing or talking to each other."
Christine, 52, adds: "Goodness knows why I agreed to take part - it seemed like a good idea at the time. I enjoy challenges, although I could have done without some of those our normal life has thrown up in recent years. It will be liberating to get away from the pressures of modern life.
"Personally, I regret what I don't do in life, not what I do - the boys I didn't kiss! So, I think if I didn't accept this challenge I would regret it. I would rather do it, even if it turns out to be a mistake, than forever regret not doing it."
Those taking part know the risks. Celebrity Big Brother did Vanessa Feltz and Anthea Turner no favours - but it boosted the careers of Jack Dee, Claire Sweeney and Keith Duffy.
These eight celebrities will fly out soon and spend up to a fortnight being watched by the cameras 24 hours a day. A team of two paramedics, two nurses and an ambulance will be on hand in the event of an emergency.
"I am sure I will break down at times," predicts Christine. "I just hope it is not too awful a spectacle - but basically I am quite tough, psychologically and physically.
"I am not terribly good in the heat, in fact I'm dreadful, so that does worry me. Will I be brave, terrified or have a hysterical whatever? I simply don't know."
Tweet
