I'M A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! returned to television screens tonight — this year starring former Brain of Bolton Anne Hegerty.

Anne, aged 60, found herself a little tearful after the first round of challenges.

“I’m really close to saying I can’t do this” she told the cameras.

She was selected for the yellow team by founding members popstar James McVey and actor Rita Simons, and joined teammates singer Fleur East and comedy actor Emily Atack.

Emily explained: "Anne got a bit upset so we gave her a cuddle. It’s overwhelming. I think she was just expressing how we were all feeling, we just didn’t want to admit it."

Anne is best known as the stern Governess in ITV's teatime quiz show The Chase, but locally she is a familiar face on the Bolton quiz circuit.

The yellow and red teams went head to head in a series of challenges. The first — The Edge — involved climbing two towers to collect as many flags as possible.

In the second test, Hell Holes, Anne had to help navigate a yellow jeep across a sandy track and retrieve five tokens from a hell hole containing mud crabs and spiders.

Meanwhile other celebrity guests conquered their fear of heights. Hollyoaks star Malique Thompson-Dwyer, for the red team, and Emily for the yellows, had to skydive the 12,000 feet to reach the beach on Queensland coast.

The last challenge of the programme was a Lake Race. The winners would secure their team the better camp, an evening meal and be immune from the first two Bushtucker Trials. The losers would be in a different camp with only rice and beans.

The teams had to make it across the lake to a pontoon, collect their jungle gear and team flag, and be the first to reach the other side of the lake.

Members of the red team, which also include TV presenter Nick Knowles, actor and entertainer John Barrowman MBE, football manager Harry Redknapp and Coronation Street star Sair Khan, came top in the challenge after using clever tactics.

The 10 celebrities have swapped luxury for life in the I’m A Celebrity Jungle and will face their fears over the next three weeks.