Grub's up for Freddie Starr as he faces early exit from I'm A Celebrity

The pair will settle down to several courses of creepy crawlies at the jungle's specially erected greasy spoon in tonight's instalment.

Mark Wright is favourite to win the show, with bookmaker William Hill giving him odds of 11/4.

The Only Way Is Essex lothario's journey into the jungle saw him expose his soft side as he struck up a friendship with Coronation Street actor Anthony Cotton.

Wright gave the soap star a cuddle after a parachute jump brought him to tears. Later on, he praised Cotton's culinary skills after the Coronation Street star cooked up rice and beans.

Wright said: "I'm so happy I got you in here, Ton. I love my food."

Earlier, stars faced an 'offal' start to their time with their first trial.

Two teams of five were suspended above two tanks which contained fish guts, offal and slime.

The task required the celebrities to reach into locked boxes in front of them -- using only their mouths -- and obtain stars and keys that could be used to unlock other boxes.

The team who unlocked all the boxes first would escape a dunking and win dinner for the camp.

Starr demonstrated a surprising reluctance to fill his mouth with critters scooping a star from a box of mealworms too late to save his team from a dunking.

As a result, yellow team clinched an easy victory, after Wright braved a box full of crickets and scorpions.

Not to let the yellow team escape the gunge, former McFly bassist Dougie Poynter retrieved a handful of fish guts from the tank, hurling them at actor Cotton and former Olympic athlete Fatima Whitbread.

On their second night in the camp, the celebrities had to compete for food in a game called Food Poker. Emmerdale's Lorraine Chase had to stomach garlic, jelly and wasabi, while racing presenter Willie Carson had to eat cat food, cheese and strawberry jam.

Poynter asked Starr if he'd really eaten a hamster. The comedian replied: "If you were to eat a hamster you'd choke."

hnews@herald.ie