Lynne Franks sees taking part in I’m A Celebrity as a great challenge and says she’s doing it both for herself and other women of her age: “The older woman, that’s who I’m doing it for – me and them,” she confesses.

Lynne is one of the best-known public PR consultants in the world, she’s a commentator on women’s issues and an entrepreneur and author.

She is reputedly the inspiration for Edina in Absolutely Fabulous although she says: “If people think I’m coming on as Edina, well, it was never me in the first place, but there were aspects, there were definitely aspects. I might even say ‘sweetie-darling’ a few times.”

Although she’s lived an incredibly varied and successful life, Lynne says she can’t think of any practical skills she can use in the camp.

“I’m completely impractical. I’ll volunteer to do what I have to do but I’m not the greatest cook in the world. The skills that I’m taking are just more the wisdom of the older woman. I wouldn’t have a clue how to make a fire. Don’t they give matches?“

Although confessing to a lack of practical skills, Lynne did battle against the elements on a trip to the Amazon two years ago.

“I was travelling around the Amazon, swimming up the river and not realising how dangerous it was. I was swimming in the Amazon for about two hours and afterwards the guide told us it was dangerous because of the killer fish, and there were alligators as well, but the worst thing, which they told me afterwards, was that if I pee in the water there are these tiny fish that follow your stream. They didn’t tell me before I did it and we were all swimming up but I was swimming the most. I really liked it. I like being in the water, I could swim for hours.’

“I went with a group of Americans who were spending time with one of the tribes in the Amazon. We were fighting the oil companies that were taking over and destroying the rainforest. We were supporting the Indians and really supporting the whole organisation that is behind taking the wisdom of the Indians, the old ways, out to the Western world, and for us to learn from them, and also to give them our skills and abilities to publicise what’s going on over there with the oil companies destroying their habitats. It was amazing, fantastic.”

Although this experience was exciting enough Lynne says that the most adventurous thing she’s ever done is going to Glastonbury.

On being asked to take part in the show, she says: “It was a shock when I was asked if I was interested and when I thought about it deeply I thought it was an amazing challenge for me on a personal level - to come up to my 60th birthday and do something like this. It really is like, well if not now, then when?

“It gives me an opportunity to put in to practise the stuff that I teach – can we live in co-operation, men and women in a small community? Use each other’s strength and support each other? That’s really interesting. I also think it is an opportunity for me as a woman of nearly 60, overweight, quite normal. Actually I shouldn’t say overweight because I put myself down and hopefully I’ll be underweight when I get out of there. I’m just a normal woman really.”

Lynne reveals that I’m A Celebrity is the only reality television show she would consider doing:

“I think it’s psychologically fascinating to see how people interact together. It’s the only one I would have done to be honest. I think its going to be a huge challenge for me.

“Last year I thought Jason Donavan was pretty cool, as was Myleene Klass and Matt. I thought David Gest was a bit too much personally, although he was slightly amusing. I didn’t fall in love with him like the rest of the world. I think that the genuine rapport and friendship that grew out of the camp was what I found most appealing.

“I found it very nice to see people really supporting each other and I also think ‘don’t flip out!’ Jan Leeming did flip out a lot, maybe I will. I’m not afraid of screaming, or being scared and showing that, or crying.

“I’m the sort of person that cries at some soppy children’s movie. I mean I love to have a good old cry. So will I have a good old cry in the jungle? I hope so.”

Although she says she can be bossy at times, and has the irritating habit of finishing people’s sentences for them, she describes herself as a compassionate, warm and open-hearted woman.

Lynne divides her time between homes in Oxford and Notting Hill Gate. She has two children, Joshua, 31, who is a stand up comic, and daughter Jessica Cato, 29, who lives in Majorca with her musician husband and two young daughters.

While in the jungle the thing Lynne will miss the most is her freedom, along with her new puppy Noodle, a comfy bed and her own toilet.

The issue of the toilet is one of Lynne’s worries along with the constant scrutiny she will be under: “You know if I wake up in the middle of the night knowing I’m snoring or other things, and I get up and need a pee, because of the Carol Thatcher incident, I will definitely make it to the loo, and in the dark.”

If the pressure gets too much we can expect to see Lynne dancing around the camp, “I’m a very freestyle dancer. I’ve been dancing since I was a kid and I love it. It’s a kind of spiritual thing for me. I go in a trance when I dance.”

So when it comes to the Bushtucker Trials will she be able to cope? “I don’t want to do any Bushtucker trials actually, but I’m sure I will. I don’t mind creepy crawlies and I don’t mind eating anything gross, I have to just keep remembering the mantra, ‘I’m sure it’s going to be absolutely disgusting and horrible but it’s not going to kill me’.”

Lynne will be teaching at a retreat in Spain before going to the jungle and says that this will help her to prepare as she will be able to take long mountain walks and swim naked in the cold sea, something she loves to do. But TV viewers won’t see Lynne strip off in the jungle.

She says: “I never wear a swimming costume in Mallorca but I don’t think I’ll be doing that in the jungle.”