WHEN Paul Burrell set about eating jungle 'delicacies' on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! - including kangaroo testicles - to earn food for the camp, nobody knew he had been in training for the event.

Martin Bouchier from Paul's local pub, The Farndon Arms, went to Selfridges in the Trafford Centre to pick up items from its Edibles range, including exotic grubs and spiders.

'But it wasn't washed down with water,' said Martin's dad Keith. 'It was washed down with Guinness.'

'You can get little pots of it from Selfridges,' he said. 'But things like live beetles and kangaroo balls are a bit off-putting really!

'We were chuffed to bits with him. He earned a lot of credit with the family and the village. I think it's fantastic.'

'I was very disappointed he didn't win,' added Keith, who said there would be a home-coming party for the Burrells in the pub to celebrate his success.

He said there was a roar from revellers at his packed pub on Monday night when everyone watching the final heard the former butler mention The Farndon Arms, Chester and Wrexham in his last plea to viewers.

Paul said: 'Everybody at home in Farndon, Chester, Wrexham, all these places, and the Farndon Arms, you're all watching aren't you!'

Keith said Paul had come across really well considering he did not have the media training he suspected contestants Vic Reeves, Huggy Bear and Sheila Ferguson had probably had. He also believes the programme-makers originally intended to try to 'make a fool of him' but in the end the 'roles were reversed'.

'They found out about his fear of heights and dropped him from 12,000ft, but he did it and everything backfired,' said Keith, who said presenters Ant and Dec had admitted Paul had been entertaining.

He said Janet Street-Porter's continual Burrell-baiting also made the show unmissable.

'He made the show,' said Keith.

As well as training for eating bugs, Paul got himself in shape. A keep-fit fanatic, he undertook a three-month training regime at his gym, Old Hall Country Club and Spa in Huntington, with the help of two personal trainers.

His bulging biceps and pecs were commented upon on more than one occasion.

Gym owner David Bloomberg, who took out an advert in local papers wishing his client well, said Paul had 'worked very hard' and was 100% focused on the task in hand.

David, who described Paul as 'a nice guy', said: 'If you knew you were going to be in a vest in front of 12 million people for two weeks then if you were half sane you would want to look as good as possible.

'If anybody has got to his age and says 'I don't look like that when I look in the mirror' then hopefully he will inspire them to do something about it.'

David said he could not understand how Paul was able to eat the creepy crawlies in his final Bushtucker Trial.

'I can't think of anything that would entice him to do what he did,' he said.

The gym boasts clients including Granada newsreader So Rahman and former Brookside actor Stephen Pinder. In the past it has been frequented by footballers Danny Murphy and Michael Owen.