Feeling the heat of having the TV cameras in my kitchen

"You know you want to!" she nagged. "Think of the PR for your books!"

Viewing figures are in their millions – and that's just in England. It's also shown as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and Finland. So I became one of over five hundred applicants, vying for five coveted places – and then I got the call to tell me that in ten days time, I'd be filming.

I can't give too much away, I don't want to spoil it for viewers (plus ITV would murder me) but here's a few answers to the questions I get asked mostly about it.

No, I really didn't know any of the people beforehand. On that first night, I didn't have a clue whose house I was going to or where it was. And I didn't rush home afterwards and trawl Facebook trying to get some insider-info on my cooking competitors. I was happy to be surprised and learn about them from our nights together.

And apart from a few stops and starts while the cameraman angles his shots, what you see on the TV is more or less what you get. Loyalties form, frictions arise and it's very easy to forget the cameras are there – a bit too easy actually. Consequently it's hard to "act" out of character for very long. Especially as the nights wear on and the wine flows.

I can reveal that my fellow Come-Diners were beautician and songbird Verene Farrell, care-worker Christian Whiteley-Mason, Road To Recovery managing director Paul Hoyle and Barnsley Towntalk chief executive Phil Davies – all of us battling to out-cook each other for a cash prize of 1,000.

Was it fun? I'm asked a lot. Oh yes. By the end of the week my cheeks were aching from laughing so much. None of us expected it to be so intensive, so tiring, so much hard work but so much fun too. We were bereft when the week was over. Getting back to "normal life" was strange after a week in a filming bubble. And yes, we've stayed in touch, been out together since (and let someone else do the cooking for us) and chat often. No we haven't seen a preview and have no idea how much Dave Lamb will slaughter us on his voice-over. I, for one, will be watching it from behind a cushion.

But sometimes in life you have to have an adventure – and this was the biggest one I've had for years. I learned a lot that week too: cooking tips, that you're never too old to make new friends and sometimes you just have to loosen your corsets and go for it. Oh – and that sound-men have lovely warm hands. My bra straps were fiddled with more times

that week than in the whole of my marriage.

Tune in to find out what strange things were on the menu at Verene's. What huge surprise had Christian got in store? How did Paul's guests receive his idea of entertainment? Did Phil pull off his speciality dish? And see if my evening went with a bang or was a totally damp squib? Expect wonderful cuisine, outrageous behaviour, friction over the forks – and an awful lot of laughter.

n Come Dine With Me Barnsley will be shown on Channel 4, 5pm, Mon Oct 18 – Fri Oct 22.