ROLLERCOSTERS and scary flights are what gets Vernon Kay's heart racing with fear.

The presenter, who grew up in Lostock, returned to screens on Monday with new daytime quiz show — 1000 Heartbeats.

To win big, contestants need to stay calm under pressure while competing against a clock, which is 1,000 of their own heartbeats, to win potentially life-changing amounts of money.

Speaking of what gets his own heart racing, the 40-year-old said: "I’m not so good on rollercoasters and bumpy flights.

"I love flying but if there’s a bit of serious turbulence — I don’t mean a couple of wobbles — but bad turbulence, then that’s where I get a bit shaky."

The programme is the latest to be fronted by the Bolton Wanderers FC fan, whose other shows past and present include T4, Beat the Star, Splash! and All Star Family Fortunes.

Vernon, a former pupil of St Joseph's RC High School in Horwich, said: "The top line of the show is you have a thousand of your own heartbeats to answer seven questions to win £25,000.

"If you do that then you are victorious and you have won but the real test on the show is a test of your nervous strength — it’s how you compose yourself under pressure.

"We’ve had a varying range of contestants from all different backgrounds, male and female, all different jobs, and it’s a real test for them all.

"It’s a big deal because I think when you realise what’s at stake, it’s really important to a lot of people.

"Some of the amounts of money are life-changing and it’s tough, it’s really tough."

In 1996, Vernon was working packing bananas in a factory when he was spotted by talent scouts at the Clothes Show Live, which led to presenting work and eight years hosting his own shows on BBC Radio 1.

While the Bolton-born star, who married Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly in Horwich in 2003, is no stranger to game shows, he admits he prefers asking the questions to answering them.

The father-of-two, who was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bolton for services to entertainment in 2009, said: "I have had a go and I’m alright at keeping my calm, it’s just the fact that I’m rubbish at answering the questions so I’d lose a lot of heartbeats through wrong answers — every time you get an answer wrong, you lose 25 heartbeats.

"That was a real struggle for me but also it’s quite nerve-wracking because there are all different types of questions — logic-based questions, Q&A style questions, there are some word searches and maths questions.

"They’re all built differently so that’s where the pressure comes in."

Does Vernon have any advice for a contestant trying to slow their heartbeat, which is monitored by an electronic heart-rate counter device for the hour-long show?

He said: "People think that you lower your heart rate or calm yourself down by taking a deep breath but if you do actually physically take a deep breath, that increases your heart rate.

"What you’ve got to do is control your breathing at a steady pace and just put yourself in a happy place and get yourself relaxed and then we’ll start.

"It works, it really does but the natural panic when they realise they don’t know the answer to the question, that’s when they worry."

1000 Heartbeats is on ITV1 at 4pm on weekdays.