Best known for playing Kirk Sutherland in the ITV soap Coronation Street, Andy Whyment won legions fans on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here for his fun-loving approach to life in the jungle.

He joined the soap in 2000 after appearing as Darren Sinclair-Jones in the sitcom The Royle Family, as well as turns on The Cops, Where The Heart Is and Heartbeat.

Born in Salford in 1981, his parents tipped him for stardom at an early age.

His mother previously told the Daily Mirror that he has two star-shaped scars on his chest from having surgery for a collapsed lung shorty after birth.

She said: “He had problems at birth and had to have two tubes put in his chest whilst on a ventilator.

“They left scars in the shape of two stars. Fred [his dad] said he was going to be a star.

“We were advised to get a priest, but he fought. We knew then he was here for a purpose. He was in the special care unit for six weeks.”

British Soap Awards 2015 – Manchester
Andy Whyment and wife Nichola have two children (PA)

After joining the cast of Corrie, Whyment took part in the ITV singing competition Soapstar Superstar and he also competed on Dancing On Ice in 2012, when he was partnered with Vicky Ogden.

In 2010, he appeared at The X Factor auditions in Manchester, when he was filming Coronation Street.

He appeared in character as Sutherland and performed the song Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon.

Whyment is father to son Thomas, 11, and daughter Hollie, nine, with wife Nichola, who he married in 2007.