When actor Marc Bannerman was asked to go into the jungle his response was ‘why not’? Why not ditch the mobile, ditch the radio, ditch the music? Ditch the television, ditch everything you know and love and go and live in the jungle.

He reveals that Dean Gaffney’s advice helped him make his mind up about going. “Dean said ‘Just go for it, there will be times when you’re going to be really bored but you’ll really enjoy it.’ I trust his judgement, he’s a shrewd fella. I know he gets a bad press but he’s a clever guy, and if he can live through his fears then so can I God dammit!”

For 34-year-old Marc, the opportunity to spend time with different age groups in the camp is a bonus. “This will be the only time I get time to spend with people older than me in a situation where we’re spending time together all the time.”

Marc was born in Dublin but grew up in North London. Despite his Irish roots he was offered the part as Gianni de Marco in EastEnders in 1997 and stayed in the soap until 2000. Since then he has undertaken a variety of roles including Celebrity Wrestling and Footballer Wives: Extra Time. It was while filming this that he met his current partner, the actress Sarah Matravers.

At the time they were both with other partners and Marc reveals: “When we parted from our partners we realised that we had a little love brewing ourselves. Our characters got married in the second series (Footballers Wives: Extra Time) and on the bedside table we’ve got the wedding photograph. So that’s quite funny and means that I don’t have to pay out for a real one.”

Sarah will be travelling to Australia to support Marc, but he’s worried that she might enjoy the high life too much: “It will be nice to see a friendly face when I’m out of the jungle, it’ll be lovely. The only thing I’m worried about is this seven star hotel, The Versace. I’ve told her she’s got to pack her own lunch and take it with her!”

Marc hopes he’ll get on well with the other celebrities although does admit that one thing might irritate them though.

“I often get mad bouts of giggles, especially late at night when I shouldn’t be laughing and everyone else is still trying to get to sleep. I often brake into absolute manic laughter that could last up to an hour. It always happens, regularly, in moments when I shouldn’t be laughing, I just can’t help it. The more you try and stop yourself the worse it is.”

But he hopes that his willingness to muck in will help to counteract the late night laughs. “I’ll be quite good at chopping wood and fetching things and, you know, I think I’ve got a good work ethic and I think especially with older people in the camp, I’ll be doing all their stuff for them, all the heavy duty work and that, I think that would give me great pleasure.

“I’m very strong, I’m very resourceful, I’m good company member really. I get on well with people, I love a laugh and a joke, so I think I might have an angle in keeping people buoyant in there. I don’t know, I’m not too bad at cooking and stuff like that.”

Although Marc is not keen on heights – especially jumping from heights – he reveals he once did a bungee jump, because it was free.

“When I left drama school I did an episode of Chalk and my character had to throw someone off the top of a building and he was fixed to a bungee rope. The guys in charge of the bungee said to me why don’t you come down to Chelsea Bridge for a free bungee jump? Well, the word free just rung out loud and clear in my head, so about three days later I found myself on Chelsea Bridge looking for my ‘free’ bungee jump, and I did it and it was terrifying, absolutely terrifying, you know that time when you almost feel like you’ve stopped breathing. The thing is I don’t like anything like that but sometimes I force myself and I just throw myself into it because it’s one of those things – one of those moments where you think ‘if I can do that I can do anything.’”

Marc reveals that he once had to be resuscitated on the roadside after crashing his motorbike. When he was released from hospital he says: “I got straight on the bike, I thought if I don’t get on the bike now I’m going to build up a fear, so best to conquer it.”

Marc is reasonably positive about the challenges, although with some reservations. “I don’t like enclosed spaces, I don’t really like jumping from heights, I don’t really like eating insects, these aren’t things that I’d normally do on a Saturday afternoon but nothing’s really phasing me and I think I’ll do well on the challenges I hope.

“Although what can you do when you’re stumbling around in the pitch darkness trying to find stars that you can’t see?”

Camping in the jungle will be very different to Marc’s only other camping experience, which was during a holiday to India he and Sarah took last year when they spent the day camel riding and the night in the desert, in a luxury tent.

Although describing himself as easygoing, Marc would find it hard to put up with any bitching in camp. “I don’t like any bitchiness or snidiness. I don’t like it when people hide their own insecurities, or if they are feeling a little but out of sorts or missing their family and take that out on other people, I don’t like bullying or anything like that, it irritates me.

Marc has been strenuously preparing for the jungle. “I’ve been on a steady diet of beans and rice for the last hour, and been to the Gym today, ten years too late!”

He says he’s been cutting down on food portions to prepare for any lack of food. “I’m not very good when I’m hungry. If there’s any time of the day to avoid me it’s when I’m absolutely starving and that’s the only time really. If I’m really hungry and really tired I’m like a big baby.

“I’ve been practising on the cat, the cat’s got no balls left because I’ve been chewing on them for the last three days to practice. “

Marc does have an ideal campmate, snooker champion Jimmy White. Speaking about Jimmy, Marc says: “I know him through some friends of mine so it’d be great to see a friendly face, someone I know, I’d be over the moon. I’m the most un-celebrity person you can think of and it’s ridiculous that I’m doing I’m a Celebrity because I just don’t live that sort of lifestyle at all and I know Jimmy’s the same as that so it’d be lovely to be there with someone who’s normal.”

For Marc it won’t be the material home comforts that will be missed while he is in the jungle, but his family and girlfriend Sarah. “I’ll miss having her to talk to, I’ll miss having her around as a kind of grounding influence on me. I’ll miss my family and friends tremendously, obviously, but apart from that, not much. It’s just people, I won’t miss any things. I mean, I’ve got some nice things here and there but I don’t need any of them. No material things have a say in my life really, they’re just things to ease life not to depend on.”

He also thinks some of his fellow celebrities might be surprised at his passion for classical music and opera. He also loves to play chess and says he will probably ‘be carving out a chess set out of stone by the time I’ve finished in there’.

Although Marc doesn’t do the celebrity circuit, he does have some celebrity friends who he says will be supporting him while he is in the jungle, including Craig Kelly, the writer Martina Cole and Liz Carling. Of course, his mate and I’m a Celebrity veteran Dean Gaffney will be giving his support. Marc says of Dean: “He’s been a real joy helping me and if it wasn’t for him I might not have made the decision to go, really helpful. I can’t express enough that there’s a lot more depth to Dean than you’ll see. You know, he’s labelled, he goes to pubs and clubs and he’s labelled a party boy but he’s got a real depth to him.”