Telly Talk: He may be caged and in prison stripes but Lembit Opik must be jumping for joy today. Good old Lemmy has every reason to celebrate with news that Nasty Nigel has quit the jungle.

Havers the Hatchet told producers he had had enough and walked out just hours after Gillian McKeith staged yet another of her fainting fits.

The Queen of the Freakout timed it to perfection and there was an audible gasp of relief from the starving celebrities once as they realised that the next person to take on the task was Linford Christie. Let’s face it, with him in the safety googles they were certainly in with more of a chance of being fed.

Dom Joly put his years of practice at shouting in his Trigger Happy television programme to good use last night, cheering on Linny – you could almost hear his mouth watering at the thought of all that lovely grub coming his way. He may have joked he was signing on for the crazy reality show to lose weight but I don’t think he had quite accounted for Gillian and the public’s appetite for torturing her on a daily basis. But the Olympic medallist certainly came up trumps with 12 out of the 13 stars.

Another reason for Lemmy to smile was his old pal Linny gritting his teeth and powering his way through the live Bushtucker Trial last night and proving to be the star of the show. In an impressive display the runner took on the circus challenge facing a number of creepy crawlies as he tackled amusement style attractions to retrieve stars. After finishing he told presenters Ant and Dec that he just focused and pretended nothing was there – advice he had given to Gillian before she once again swooned for the cameras.

And it could be that while his conversation is at top speed – Havers said he couldn’t stand the inane chat – Linford could be the man to listen to even if you only catch every second word.

It was a tad prophetic that Linny – before the pair established their unique rapport – launched that tirade with Lembit less than a week ago when he claimed all the politicians who had been forced to pay back any money they had claimed in expenses should go to jail. That’s exactly where the former MP (for 13 years!) has found himself.

He failed his latest jungle challenge and, alongside Sheryl Gascoigne, is now behind bars, with four more celebrities set to get the same treatment. Interesting turn of events there.

But at least it’s keeping Lembit in the thick if things, because with Gillian’s Oscar-winning fainting and Nigel’s sharp exit he could get lost in all the drama.

Now his nemesis is gone let’s hope the 45-year-old picks up the pace a bit and gets stuck in. Otherwise Linny is going to leave him for dust – double act or no double act.