BOLTON brainbox Anne Hegerty has revealed I'm A Celebrity producers secretly allowed her to prepare for her upcoming pantomime while in the jungle.

Anne, 60, is due to play Queen Rat in a production of Dick Whittington in Windsor from next Tuesday.

The Chase star was talking on ITV's This Morning when she said: "I've seen the script. I was allowed half an hour with it every day, in the medical hut in the jungle."

Anne, who was crowned Brain of Bolton three times, also revealed it was her quiz show co-star Mark Labbett who talked her into signing up for the show.

She said: "I discussed it with Mark. Initially I said there wasn't enough money in the world and then my agent said [bosses] wanted to take you out for lunch, and they were absolutely delightful."

During her appearance on the show Anne also met 11-year-old Joseph Hughes, who suffers from autism.

Joseph wrote to Anne while she was in the jungle to praise her for being 'brave' enough to appear on the ITV show.

In the letter he wrote: "Some people are mean to me because I am autistic but watching you makes me see that other people can have autism too and maybe I can have a cool job like you when I am older."

Anne is best known as one of the stars of ITV quiz show The Chase, but locally she is a familiar face on the Bolton quiz circuit as a member of the Bob's Smithy team who play on Monday evenings in the Bolton Premier Quiz League.

She has won the league's Brain of Bolton competition three times, in 2012, 2013 and 2015.