Was I right to turn down I'm a Celeb? Yes, but I'll enjoy Farage

AS this year’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here starts to fill up the news feeds on my phone, it takes me back to the very first series, in 2002.

- Dylan Jones

I was friendly with one of the contestants, the socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and the producers asked me to film one of those “bon voyage” videos, wishing her well (I’ve still got the thank you card she sent me afterwards, drawn in crayon, rather sweetly). I duly did what I was asked, and quite quickly became intrigued by the show itself.

At the time I actually thought it was quite brilliant, and a remarkably simple way to see bold-face names out of their comfort zones. The first series also included Christine Hamilton, the wife of the disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton (during a time back in the Nineties when “disgraced Tory MP” actually seemed to be a job in itself).

That year the couple came to my Christmas party, which had ended with Neil, sitting half naked on a gilt chair, having his chest hair shaved by three girls from the fashion department, and Christine standing on a dinner table manically playing air guitar to Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. You really had to be there.