Anna Ryder Richardson is convinced that there’s been a mistake and can’t believe she’s actually going into the I’m A Celebrity jungle. “I still can’t quite believe it,” she laughs. “I mean, I’m just this silly little thing that used to paint the odd room. It’s surreal, there must be something I’ve missed, like it’s a massive joke or something.”

Anna’s principal fear is not the trials or challenges but wind. She explains: “I’m a bit worried about having wind. I haven’t ever farted in front of my partner, even my children have asked me if I’ve ever farted. I say no, which is so awful, bringing them up to think that. My poor girls are going to have to grow up hearing ‘uh! You’re the daughters of the woman that farted.’

“And they must have the mics on even when you’re in the dunny, so they’re going to hear everything. And I never go to the loo for a number two when I’m filming. Anyway, I need to get off that subject. Let’s go back to bugs or eating testicles.”

Anna agrees that despite her reservations she would regret not taking up on the opportunity, although insists that this is the only reality show she would ever do.

“I’m never ever, ever, ever going to put myself up for anything like this ever again, and you can quote me on that because I absolutely am not. After this mummy bear is going to retire no matter how well I come out of this. You know, if I fart, I fart whatever, but there will be no more so I suppose it’s a good one to go out on. I mean there’s Dancing on Ice and there’s Strictly Come Dancing and OK you could have got to wear a glamorous frock that pulled you in tight and lots of make up but A: I probably would have looked like a transvestite; and B: this one I think is much more challenging, and the way I think about it is this is going to be the biggest challenge of my life - that and being married.”

Anna lives in Glasgow with her husband, restaurateur Colin MacDougall, and they have two daughters, Bibi Belle, 5 and Dixie Dot, 4. According to Anna, Colin’s attempts to help her to get fit for the jungle haven’t been a huge success so far.

“He dragged me up a mountain yesterday saying ‘right that’s it, you’ve got to get fit.’ It absolutely pissed with rain and all the way up he was saying, ‘you can’t scream.’ And then on the way down I twisted my knee and I had to walk down half of it backwards and he went ‘oh that’s ridiculous, I’m not taking you up a mountain again.’ I was like, ‘well thanks very much for your support on that.’”

Anna was hoping to get some survival tips from Ray Mears but was thwarted by the schedules: “It’s just typical isn’t it?’ ‘We’ve spent years lying on our couches watching Ray Mears loving it, absolutely loving it, and now he’s not blooming on any channel that I can possibly find. I can’t remember anything that he’s done, you know, and I wanted to learn a bit of whittling or something, learn how to make an igloo out of a palm tree,”

Anna knows what she is letting herself in for as she has watched previous shows and says: “I want to be Myleene Klass. I’m more like Myleene Klass’s mother… that’s probably more insulting to her mother. Her grandmother. “

She doesn’t think she will compete with Myleene in the famous shower scene: “Well, if I am (in the shower) you can guarantee that’s when the camera man will be having a cup of tea. They’ll be like ‘don’t worry it’s just the old hag, cameras down boys.’”

One rumour that Anna has heard is there are creatures in the jungle that ‘go up inside ladies,’ so she’s decided that she’ll keep her pants on very tight all the time. “Pull them right up here. I don’t care what I look like.”

Anna’s previous reality show experience was on Only Fools on Horses for Comic Relief, which she says is the most adventurous things she’s done to date, and she’s hoping this challenge will be positive.

“I hope that I will overcome all sorts– I’ve never jumped out of a plane, never eaten anything…. I’ve eaten an ant but that was roasted and crunchy and tasted a bit like a nut. Colin can’t get me to eat rabbit or frogs legs or anything, certainly nothing like offal. I hope I can overcome the challenges because I’m not sure I could say ‘Hey, I think I’d be really good at that.’ But half of you inside thinks that you might have a bit of a Lara Croft inside you and you just hope that that’s there, that’ll come out a little bit and I’ll come out with a bit of dignity and having not farted.”

When asked if she will be attempting a Changing Rooms makeover in the jungle, she laughs: “Now I doubt that anyone’s going to let me do that in the camp. Let’s put all the beds there, cooking there, move the fire over here.”

Anna hopes she’ll come over as a caring campmate, as she can be motherly and is usually quite cheerful. “I’m quite bouncy unless I’ve got a bit of a hangover and then you can guarantee I’ll be a bit quieter but that will probably annoy people, they’ll be like ‘for goodness sake.’ People say to me ‘what are you on?’ and I’m not on anything, I promise, but it’s probably going to irritate some people and I’ll end up being gagged in a corner.”

If one particular celebrity turned up in the Jungle Anna’s cheery personality might come under strain. “My nightmare would be John McCririck turning up. He’s horrid and said rude things about me when I did Only Fools and Horses.”

One task that will be a challenge is cooking, because Anna confesses that even her children tell people she can’t cook. However, she hopes to compensate by clearing up after people. “I’m the kitchen porter of our household, and I clear up like a wee-whizzy thing, so I will be the clearer.”

So how does Anna think she will cope with a messy jungle camp?

“I like things to be in their place. I don’t think I have OCD - I can’t have because I live with a very messy man and two very messy children. I do sort of constantly run around, you know, I can’t bear pictures that aren’t straight and things like that. Now that’s going to be very difficult in the jungle because it’s all going to be so rustic.”

Anna’s husband and children will be in Australia but Anna says she will still miss not being able to see them every day. She is hoping not to get too emotional about it but confesses that she can get very emotional. “I cry at the drop of a hat. I cry at Little House on the Prairie without fail. I can cry at two old people walking down the road hand in hand because I just think how can you be so old and still love each other? So I probably will cry.”

One plan that Anna has put on hold while she is in the jungle is to own a zoo for endangered species. The plans are in the early stages, but she has her eye on a place in South Wales. She says: “When I was first approached with the idea I was instantly Joy Adamson, you know, Gorillas in the Mist, Daktari, you know, all rolled into one. I had baby cubs in my house bottle feeding them, my children were running around riding lions.”