Brian Blessed set for I'm A Celebrity?

Brian Blessed set for I'm A Celebrity? (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Brian Blessed is reportedly being lined up to appear in the next series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Producers of the ITV reality show are apparently really keen for the 71-year-old actor - known for his roles in Blackadder and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves - to brave the Australian jungle, The Sun reports. An ITV source said: "Can you imagine Brian in the jungle, he would be TV gold - we have approached him and really hope he'll join us." Brian, a Shakespearean actor, scaled Mont Blanc aged just 17 and has tried to climb Everest three times. He has explored jungles in Venezuela and is the oldest man to trek on foot to the magnetic North Pole, so he would have all the survival skills needed to triumph in I'm A Celebrity. The Sun says the star had been in talks to appear on Hell's Kitchen but decided against it. The US version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! starts on ITV2 on Monday June 8 at 9pm.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.