Tony Blackburn never expected I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! to last as long as it did.

The 80-year-old DJ won the first series of ITV1’s jungle reality show when it aired in 2002, but he never imagined the show would still be on TV more than two decades later and admitted he would “not enjoy” doing it now that famous faces were being challenged.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: “I really liked the show 21 years ago. It’s changed a lot now, it’s a lot more… some of the trials are awful – I wouldn’t be involved in it now. I thought it would be on for quite a long time, I’m not sure if it will be 21 years, but it still has a really big audience and of course I tune in for (the presenters) Ant and Dec because they’re so good.”

“I just love watching the show because I know what they all go through sitting around the fire and arguing. It’s not an easy show, it’s a very hard show, especially now I think. We were there for two weeks, now they’re doing three. I think two weeks was enough for me but I enjoyed every moment and it really changed my life because you go in there and it’s very peaceful, no phones or anything. The people you’re there with, you have to learn to be yourself and I’m looking forward to the next one.”

The former Top of the Pops presenter, who competed in the jungle against the late Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and singer Darren Day, added he had “no idea” what the show entailed when he signed up for it and admitted his wife and mother even tried to dissuade him from flying to Australia to take part.

He added: “I had no idea. When I was asked to take part in the show, I met some of the researchers and they asked, ‘Do you like the outdoors?’ and I said, ‘Not particularly.’ They asked me what I would eat and I said, ‘No idea, I’m a vegetarian’ and so I assumed they didn’t want me, but they did. My mum and wife tried to talk me out of it, they said I wasn’t very good at it. It was interesting because we didn’t know how the show worked and I don’t even remember them telling us we had to take part in the trials!”

The 23rd season of “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” will air on Sunday 19 November from 9 p.m. and the new contestants include politician Nigel Farage, “This Morning” presenter Josie Gibson and Britney Spears’ sister Jamie Lynn.