Marc Bannerman: Jungle bungle

“I’m in big trouble, ain’t I?” Marc Bannerman’s words as he emerged from the Australian jungle to face Ant and Dec may well go down as one of the biggest showbiz understatements of 2007. Because, as Bannerman is discovering, the price of appearing in a reality TV show such as I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!is not only that your girlfriend can watch your every move as you flirt with someone else, but that your past will come back to haunt you.

When Bannerman, an actor, opened the newspapers on Sunday he found that the now ex-girlfriend, Sarah Matravers, had retaliated, claiming in the Sunday Mirror that he once beat her so badly she had to put her arm through a window to stop the assault. While he had probably hoped that an appearance on the show would reinvigorate his TV career, the headline he read was “Jungle Marc beat me up”.

Bannerman, 34, who once achieved national heart-throb status playing Gianni Di Marco in EastEnders, had made the mistake of canoodling openly with fellow contestant, Cerys Matthews. It is not the first time one of Bannerman’s amours has affected his work. In 2000, he gave an interview in which he claimed that the BBC axed his character from EastEnders because he was in a relationship with co-star Nadia Sawalha that was making him lose appeal with girl fans (Bannerman once had to donate a sack of knickers sent to him by female viewers to Oxfam). The sacking caused him to sink into depression and turn to alcohol and his weight ballooned to more than 17 stone.

Ingeniously, he lied to get the part of Gianni, telling casting directors that he was half-Italian with a Sardinian grandfather, when in fact he is Irish. Born in Dublin in 1973, he grew up in North London and as a youth boxed for Islington Boys Club. His parents divorced when he was 5 and he lived until he was 17 with his father. Bannerman has spoken in the past about his mother Dolores’ addiction to alcohol.

As a teenager he too drank heavily and ended several evenings in police cells. He left school without qualifications and got work as a silk-screen printer, but was still drinking too much and was cautioned for being drunk and disorderly. “Then one day as I was sitting in another cell, I just decided I had to go back to college,” he said. He passed his GCSEs, got a drama school scholarship and landed a series of small acting jobs before getting the EastEnders role.

Since leaving EastEnders, he has starred in the comedy Time Gentlemen Please, Hol-by City, Footballers’ Wives: Extra Time and Celebrity Wrestling. For now though, Bannerman is more likely to be focused on sorting out his personal life. “I’ve embarrassed her [Sarah] and I’ve embarrassed myself,” he said, explaining that he had just wanted to feel close to someone. “You know, it can be lonely to be in a place like that.”

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010