Davina McCall: Life at the Extreme - Things that go roar in the night

Television presenter Davina McCall had a rude awakening whilst camping out in the Namibian bush making new ITV series, Life at the Extreme.

Fully immersing herself in this extreme environment, Davina and local ranger Henco Bantjes build themselves a ‘boma’, a circle of thorn bushes, which they sleep in the middle of (and which will hopefully keep the wild animals out).

Though as Davina says: I’ve never camped in the wild before, I’ve never even camped before…I don’t think our boma’s going to stop anything.’

And then in the middle of the night Davina gets a visit from the animal she’s most afraid of…a lion.

As Davina explains, after a sleepless night: ‘I’ve just spent a night camping out in the African bush but it wasn’t as peaceful as I’d have hoped…we’re alive, which is great news…I went to sleep at 10pm, I was out for the count, and I woke up at about midnight and I could hear Henco going, ‘Hey, hey, hey,’ and he went, ‘It’s a lion,’ and it was really close to the camp…I thought it was going to come with its entire family through the back route and eat us all. I’ve never been so awake in my entire life. I was so alert, I suddenly went bionic.’

Davina McCall: Life at the Extreme, starts Monday, 9pm, ITV.