It's official: Andrew Maxwell IS in I'm A Celebrity

'I have a long-standing reputation with poo'

Andrew Maxwell has tonight been confirmed as one of the contestants in this year’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

ITV tonight confirmed the full line-up of this year’s show before it gets under way on Sunday, with the comedian heading to the jungle alongside the likes of Ian Wright and Caitlin Jenner.

The 45-year-old says he will most miss his wife, three children, beer and football when cut off from the rest of the world – but there will be an upside.

He said: ‘I am a massive current affairs junkie but to be honest, even I have had enough of politics. I will still vote in the general election but the idea of missing all the guff because I am doing a Bushtucker Trial does tickle me quite a bit!’

Although some comics might have reservations about taking part in I’m A Celebrity, Maxwell said: 'It was a no brainer when they asked me and I said ‘yes’ immediately.

‘In fact on the day of my meeting, we were clearing out our basement at home and there was a spider. I picked it up and put it on my face for a bit of practice!’

Another plus is the idea of being in one place for a month. ‘My life is touring,’ he adds. ‘And so the idea of not having to go to an airport, train station for a month…wow! That will be nice.

‘I also think you just have to accept the food rations as it is. My whole adult life has been on the road. It means you miss out on meals, maybe even two, and you just have to soak it all up.’

He also said he is more than happy to be the ‘person who cleans out the toilet and collects the logs’.

‘My littlest is two and so I am still in the world of wiping away poo anyway,’ he admits. ‘I have a long-standing reputation as someone who is willing to clean out the toilet in my mate’s caravan after a three-day music festival too.’

Asked to compare doing I’m a Celebrity with a stand-up gig, Maxwell says: ‘They are both hard. Every time you walk out on stage, you have no idea what you are going to encounter. You walk through a magic door! And with I’m a Celebrity, you are going to have creepy crawlies on your face.’

He adds that fellow comedians will think it hilarious that he's in the jungle, and added: ‘I will be really chuffed if I win. But with something like this, it is so much more pleasant to live the experience. Yes it will be uncomfortable, wet and there will be mosquitos and spiders but what an amazing opportunity this is.’

Maxwell has some experience of reality TV as the narrator of MTV’s he Ex On The Beach; and in 2004 he won King Of Comedy – a Channel 4 reality show which pitched younger comics against veterans such as Stan Boardman and Mick Miller, all living in the same Big Brother style house.

He was first linked to the show when he wass pictured arriving at Brisbane Airport this morning, close to where the series is filmed

According to the Mirror, he told photographers he wouldn’t take his sunglasses off as: ‘No one will know who I am anyway’.

He reportedly added that he was afraid of the snakes, adding: 'We don’t have snakes in Ireland and you should never trust an animal without shoulders who can’t shrug.'

The full list of celebrities heading into the jungle for the new series is