Former police chief Brian Paddick, tennis star Martina Navratilova and ex-MP Robert Kilroy-Silk will be joining Wags and faded pop and soap stars in the latest series of I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

The eighth series of the ratings-grabbing ITV jungle show kicks off on Sunday with the promise of even more terrifying bushtucker trials for the 10 celebrities.

This year’s line-up includes TV presenter and ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen (68) and the oldest ever I’m a Celebrity... contestant in the form of US Star Trek and Heroes actor George Takei (71).

Carly Zucker (24) fiancee of England footballer Joe Cole, is also entering the jungle after hanging upside down in preparation.

She will face competition in the form of glamour model and fellow Wag Nicola McLean (25) who says she does not care that millions of viewers will not know who she is.

Her greatest fear is not wearing make-up, as her footballer fiance Tom Williams, of Peterborough, has never seen her without it, “even during childbirth”, she says. The other names in the jungle will include Joe Swash (26) who played Mickey Miller in EastEnders, Dani Behr, former presenter of The Word, and Simon Webbe (30) formerly of boyband Blue.

Paddick (50) was dubbed “Cannabis Cop” after ordering officers to warn and not arrest people with marijuana when he was police commander for Lambeth.

Paddick, who was Britain’s most senior openly gay police officer, made his name as the deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police and ran for mayor as the Liberal Democrat candidate. Ex-chat show host Kilroy-Silk (66) was a Labour MP before he joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and then founded Veritas, Latin for truth. Six months later, he quit as leader of the fringe party.

I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! which was won last year by Christopher Biggins, begins on Sunday on ITV1 and ITV2.