Reality television (as it is called with varying degrees of accuracy) is a fact of our viewing lives currently.

Sometimes the subjects are deemed by the programme makers to be worthy of the title ‘Celebrity’. 

This usually provokes an urge to deflate these popinjays, who consider themselves somehow worthy of celebration, by adding ‘B, C or Z-listers’ to describe just how celebrated the aforesaid persons are in the eyes of the writer. 

So when I acknowledge that I am currently appearing in a Channel 5 programme entitled ‘Celebrity Five Go Caravanning’ I don’t want anyone to think that the participants, i.e. me, consider themselves worthy of the epithet. 

To be accurate the title should be ‘Five People (you may or may not have seen before on television or heard on the radio who have for some time earned an intermittent living by performing in some way) Go Caravanning.  

That is certainly more accurate but less catchy a title perhaps? Anyway, however we may prefer to be described, five of us, three actors, a DJ and a singer, were persuaded that it might be fun to spend two weeks in each others’ company while towing and living in caravans in the Lakes, North Yorkshire and Cornwall.

And surprise, surprise, it actually was an awful lot of fun.  Caravanning itself at first glance was not a massive attraction for this dull, stay at home, comfort-loving columnist, so sampling it with what were effectively four complete strangers was fraught with potential hazards.  

I haven’t shared sleeping quarters with anyone other my family for decades and can think of no situation where that would appeal, without ruining a very happy marriage anyway.

My two sleeping companions were male and the space we occupied was smaller than my bedroom. 

But after realising that modesty and dignity could be easily preserved by retiring before the other two chaps and relying on my legendary ability to nod off anywhere, that hurdle was quickly overcome.  

And whether by accident or design my dorm buddies and our next door neighbours, the girls, were more entertaining and convivial than I could have ever hoped. 

The resultant four television programmes start this Friday on Channel 5 at 8pm. We spent so much laughing, usually at our mutual incompetence, that I am prepared to look less judgmentally on the caravan that blocks my progress on a country road.

Well, maybe.