...but the odds are against her winning

 Helen Lederer was among the celebrities to enter the 2017 Celebrity Big Brother house last night.

And she has admitted that she will find been cooped up with the housemates a strain.

‘I live in my head quite a lot and sometimes I get described as being off,’ she said.

She also admitted that she was worried about the ‘bed situation’ inside the house.

And before she entered the house the 62-year-old comedian and Ab Fab actress said: ‘I don’t know how I am in a group situation. I kind of say what is in my head so I don’t know if that would work too well.

‘I can’t stop myself, it is a very genuine thing… not always to great results. I’m the kind of person that would probably lose my marbles in confined spaces."

Betfair gave Helen very long odds of 18/1 of winning the Channel 5 show, with EastEnders and Extras star Shaun Williamson an early favourite at 7/2.

Lederer is best known for playing dippy magazine Catriona in all five series of Absolutely Fabulous between 1992 and 2012, and last year’s movie. She calls herself a ‘comedy supply teacher’ because she’s forever supporting comics who have gone on to bigger things.

Born in Carmarthen^[4] to an English mother and Czech father, she started her career in the Comedy Store in the 1980s and in 1986 got her break after the cast of predominantly Scottish BBC Two sketch show Naked Video.

In January 2013 she was a contestant on ITV celebrity diving show Splash!, but was eliminated in the first round; and in 2015 her comedy novel Losing It was published by Pan Macmillan

Also in Celebrity Big Brother this year are Sarah Harding, Jemma Lucy, Derek Acorah, Amelia Lily, Paul Danan, Jordan Davies, Brandi Glanville, Chad Johnson, Trisha Paytas, Sam Thompson, Marissa Jade, Sandi Bogle  and Karthik Nagesan 

Published: 2 Aug 2017