Overview

• The 68-year-old appears in the BBC One celebrity edition filmed at Ardross Castle across a nine-episode run for charity prizes up to £100,000.
• In the opening episode, he told fellow contestant Niko Omilana that he had been a “dreadful” child who “literally went to prison,” contrasting it with the day his mother watched him be knighted.
• As a teenager he failed A-levels, stole a family friend's credit card, fled to Swindon, and served three months at Pucklechurch in South Gloucestershire.
• During that term he was nicknamed “The Professor” and helped a cellmate learn to read and write.
• After release he resat exams, won a place at Queens' College, Cambridge, joined Footlights, and later built a prominent career; he is married to Elliott Spencer and the couple live in Norfolk.