Lembit is bitten by snake during I'm a Celeb trial

Lembit is bitten by snake during I'm a Celeb trial
Lembit is bitten by snake during I'm a Celeb trial (Image credit: Ken McKay)

Lembit Opik has been bitten by a snake while enduring the latest I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! challenge. The former MP was nipped on a finger after he thrust his hand into a box containing the angry reptile in an effort to avoid elimination from the ITV1 show. Lembit, who endured 13 years of backbiting in Westminster, will be seen receiving the bite in a double bill of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Thursday from 8pm. Lembit, and others including Stacey Solomon and Shaun Ryder, were taking part in a contest in which the winner would be immune from eviction. The ex-Lib Dem politician had to put his hand into a box of rats, then another containing the snake, as he fumbled around for keys. Lembit - who was unable to see what was in the box - grimaced as he gingerly put his hand inside, then flinched as the snake grabbed him. Public phone votes in the contest are raising cash for the charity Malaria No More UK, which aims to eradicate deaths from the disease by 2015.

Patrick McLennan

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.