Danny Baker begged ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ bosses to let him join this year’s camp.
The 59-year-old radio DJ actually reached out to producers of the show earlier this year as taking part in the creepy-crawly programme has been a "lifelong ambition" of his and he feels now is the perfect time considering he’s just beaten a brutal six-year battle with throat and mouth cancer.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, he said: "I’m one of the few people who actually asked. The only show I’ve ever wanted to do is this. It’s like being asked to do a West End musical.
"This is, in modern TV, as good as it gets. They fly you around the world, put you in a hotel with a beach, then you play gamed in the jungle."
The comedian – who was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 – would have slipped into his jungle gear and headed into the Australian outback earlier if his health had permitted.
He explained: "The reason I couldn’t do the jungle last time is, for a few years, I couldn’t eat properly and it only passed 18 months ago. They put this hole in my chest where I had to feed through it … I didn’t learn a damn thing from being at deaths’ door for eight months. I would have done this 10 years ago, five years ago. There is no ambition involved other than I’m here by the skin of my teeth."
And, although he’s determined to put his all into the next three weeks, Danny has admitted he’s planning to step away from his Radio 5 Live Show and move to Florida when he turns 60 in June.
Danny – who will join the jungle on Thursday (17.11.16) – said: "I’m not Bowie, I’m not Sinatra. It’s just I don’t want to do any more TV or radio after June, when I’m 60. I don’t want to do much. But I may as well write. That’s easy to do sitting on the edge of the ocean."
Danny Baker asked to do I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
