BY the time you read this I will be in Australia, taking part in ITV’s ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’.

First of all, I would like to assure you that the word ‘celebrity’ is one that I have never coveted.

I became an actor four-and-a-half decades ago because I wanted to act, not because I sought fame.

And I would caution anyone who joins any of the strands of the entertainment profession, that if fame is your prime motivation it is unlikely you will acquire it. The most ‘celebrated’ singers, dancers, actors are those who simply want, no need, to sing, dance and act.

So, if I ever utter that word in the course of the programme it will, I promise you, only be because I cannot eat a live humming bird or dangle by my nostrils over a pit of alligators.

I am writing the day before I fly out and there is in my stomach a lump of what feels like lead, as I contemplate what lies ahead and just as importantly – what I am leaving behind. Once I arrive in Australia I am completely cut off from my family and everyone at home. No contact is allowed until I walk back over that bridge to be affectionately mocked by Ant and Dec (now there’s a job I’d like!).

I think this is my principal anxiety. I have never been out of contact with my wife for more than a day in the thirty odd years we have been together. And I will worry, even though we have good friends and tradesmen who will help out when the boiler explodes, some jobsworth demands paperwork my wife can’t find, or (as has literally just happened) the Sky television packs up and has to be rebooted.

The not knowing that Baker Towers and all who dwell therein is safe and secure eclipses even the prospect of devouring aardvark droppings through a straw while standing on my head in a bowl of primeval slime or being closeted with more creepy crawlies than the average human meets in a life time, the majority of whom are trying to make a new home in your bodily cavities.

So why am I doing it? Because it’s there! It’s a challenge, once offered, that I cannot duck. And what a brilliant way to lose weight! I can’t raid the fridge!