FORMER Bromsgrove Advertiser journalist Michael Buerk is making a surprise appearance on a popular reality television programme.

The 68-year-old journalist and broadcaster is reportedly being paid £150,000 for his appearance on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! which began yesterday evening, (November 17).

He is also reported to be the highest paid of these year's contestants, which include television presenter Melanie Sykes, The Only Way is Essex's Gemma Collins, and motorcycle racer Carl Fogarty.

Buerk began his career in journalism on the Advertiser, then known as the Bromsgrove Messenger, before moving on to South Wales Echo and the Daily Mail.

The Solihull born newsreader spent most of his broadcasting career at the BBC, and his reporting of the Ethiopian famine in 1984 focused world attention and inspired the Band Aid charity record and later the Live Aid concert.

On the first episode of the reality series, Buerk struck up an unlikely friendship with pop star Tinchy Stryder, and skydived into the jungle.

The Radio 4 Moral Maze host has said he is "very sniffy about reality television", but felt it was time to take himself less seriously.

Buerk has been made the third favourite to win the series by bookies, behind former footballer Jimmy Bullard and Coronation Street and Red Drawf actor Craig Charles.