Daniels and McGee join the animals

Ageing magician Paul Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee have signed up to Channel Five's latest reality show - The Farm.

16:32 27 August 2004

Ageing magician Paul Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee have signed up to Channel Five's latest reality show - The Farm.

The series will see celebrities placed on a Wiltshire farm and required to perform suitably rural tasks including milking cows, mucking out and herding sheep.

Big Brother creator Endemol have produced the show, which will be shown every night for three weeks starting at the end of September.

As part of the programme the celebrity contestants will nominate a farm manager from within the group - this person will be immune from eviction but has to carry out the most gruelling tasks.

Each week the public will vote out the contestant they like the least.

If celebrities do not complete the tasks set to them they are denied coal, their way of heating water for washing, heating and cooking.

Former underwear model Sophie Anderton has signed up to the show and David Beckham's ex-PA Rebecca Loos is reportedly close to joining the series.

Daniels said: "The Farm is a great idea that, I hope, will introduce us townies to the countryside, the hard work of the farming community and even make the food chain real."

Anderton said she is "delighted" to be involved, however she admits: "It will certainly be a complete culture shock for me".

A version of the show, broadcast in France earlier this year, was criticised following claims some animals died during filming.