So tell us, Mrs Mallett, what's it like being married to the most annoying man in the world?

By Natalie Clarke for MailOnline
Updated: 20:32 EDT, 4 December 2008

So what's it like being Mrs Mallett? Is life with Timmy a non-stop party of madcap fun and practical jokes ending with his hilarious catchphrase: 'Bleurgh!'?

An icy chill shoots up through the phone line from Australia. A nerve-wracking silence.

'No,' Lynda Mallett says finally, 'no it's not. And look, when you're a children's entertainer, you have to have a catchphrase.'

But Timmy's zany antics and nonstop giggling irritated all the other contestants on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! not to mention millions of viewers who voted him out at the weekend.

Wacky days: Timmy and Lynda, who went to Australia with him

He had been a stand-in competitor in 2004, but no one dropped out and the nation was spared.

Does Lynda get irritated by him? Does all that wackiness wear her down?

'Timmy giggles at home sometimes, but not all the time. He was being filmed 24 hours a day on I'm A Celebrity and the producers were taking bits of him giggling and putting it into an hour-long programme, which made it appear as if he was always giggling.

'In the last series they had that woman Janice [Dickinson] who constantly said "Oh Man" to everything.

'Timmy's laugh may be irritating, but he's not an irritating person. He was probably just trying to cheer things up a bit, although at times I've thought: "Oh God, Timmy, tone it down."

'And being irritating at least got him noticed,' she says. 'Robert Kilroy-Silk did well in the bush tucker trials but that's not exactly interesting, is it?' 

Happy: Timmy grins as he exits the jungle after being voted off by viewers

Obviously not. Kilroy-Silk was evicted from the jungle even before Timmy.

But like everyone else, Kilroy found Timmy madly annoying. He and the other contestants were infuriated when Timmy cackled all the way through one of Kilroy's trials in which he had to dunk his head in a tank of rats.

Former EastEnders actor Joe Swash summed up the mood when he said: 'I'm surprised he (Robert) didn't give him one.'

'There's a bit of history there,' says Lynda. 'Kilroy and Timmy did another reality show a while back, but it never went to air.

'It was based in a courtroom where Timmy was part of a celebrity jury alongside Kilroy, Julian Clary and Nancy Dell'Olio - and Kilroy didn't like the idea of anyone else taking over the job of jury foreman apart from him.

Lynda is speaking from a fancy hotel in Brisbane with friends and family of the other contestants. It hasn't stopped raining.

'I've got my mother with me who's 80 and we're here in the pouring rain and she's thinking, what's all this boll****?

'But some of it is enjoyable. I went out looking at kangaroos with Robert Kilroy-Silk's wife, Jan, and she was perfectly lovely.'

Timmy caused controversy when Brian accused him of grabbing his arm to try and stop him swallowing bugs in a bush tucker trial

Lynda says Timmy went into the jungle to win. 'He was in Queensland for a week before he went in the jungle and my theory is that he spent that time planning a strategy.

'You have to be noticed, whether that is by being irritating or funny or whatever. Timmy is an outspoken type of chappie. He's not backward in coming forward and that's a good thing. I mean, look at Carly Zucker - who's she?'

Lynda watched his bush tucker trial with Page Three girl Nicola McLean. 'That girl was barking her head off in that common voice. I don't want to say what I think of her, but I met her friends and they told me she's very nice.

'It's like Lord Of The Flies in there. Everyone seems to be hating it, they're tired, they're miserable, but if you were stuck in a confined space like that with no escape from one another, wouldn't you be?

'You know what I do when Timmy gets crabby at home? I feed him. It works every time. If someone comes round and says they've had a bad day, I give them some cake.'

Timmy is the type of person variously described as 'zany' or 'wacky' which, as a general rule, means being very loud and wearing Hawaiian shirts. He started dressing like this for the children's television show, Wacaday, in the mid-Eighties.

Twenty years later, aged 53, he sees no reason to stop.

Specs: Timmy's eye-wear has garnered lots of attention over the years

Along with the comedy get-up are the 'bleurgh!' and 'utterly brilliant!' catchphrases and a giant pink foam mallet with which he sometimes hilariously whacks children. He even bashed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which she must have found really amusing.

He rounds off the look with the comedy specs. Once, he had all 23 pairs stolen while doing a show in Blackpool. But though he loves wearing them, it seems he doesn't like paying for them. According to one report, before entering the jungle he contacted Glasses Direct, asking for some free specs.

Does Timmy wear his eye-catching ensembles at home?

'Timmy started out in the Eighties, which was a colourful time. He's an artist and a friend of Rolf Harris, who also wears colourful shirts. But I wouldn't say they're quite as loud at home, no.'

Lynda says there is much more to the man than is apparent at first sight. 'He's a talented artist and an astute businessman One minute he'll be on GMTV, the next he's doing a pop video. We lead a very varied life.'

Keep schtum: When covered with bugs in a bush tucker trial, Timmy powered through the experience - though he didn't keep his mouth closed

And what about him being a former champion jet-skier? Another strained silence. Mrs Mallett is puzzled. I explain that Timmy's online Wikipedia entry has him down as a former 'world champion' in the discipline.

It turns out someone has fiddled with Timmy's page. Lynda says she's going to get it sorted right away, this minute. She sounds cross - she's very protective of Timmy, but then she needs to be.

Lynda, who won't tell me how old she is, but is believed to be 53, met Timmy in 1989 when he was in Australia touring with his Wacaday show. At the time she was living in Melbourne, running American Express offices.

He invited her to the UK and they were married at Chilham Castle in Kent in 1990. Their son, William Theodore, known as Billy, was born in 1992. The family settled in a farmhouse in Cookham, Berkshire. Lynda helps with the admin side of Timmy's entertainment business.

Billy, now 16, has remained in Britain. 'Billy thought his dad did well,' says Lynda, carefully. Subject closed.

He's behind you: Timmy will start rehearsals for his latest panto as soon as he returns from Australia

The year they married, Timmy, who took a degree in history at the University of Warwick, formed the band, Bombalurina, and his single, a cover of Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, made number one in the charts.

It was claimed in a newspaper that the vocals were not sung by Timmy but by a stand-in. Lynda is having none of it. 'I can tell you categorically that it's Timmy's vocals. I know because I was in the recording studio with him,' she says.

Lynda says her husband possesses qualities he didn't have a chance to show on I'm A Celebrity, and that under those Hawaiian shirts lies a fearless nature.

One night in 2001, after hearing cries for help, Timmy rescued a woman who had fallen into the water at Hartlepool marina. 'If she had been in there much longer, who knows how things would have turned out,' says Lynda.

Three days later, as if the woman hadn't suffered enough, Timmy invited her to watch him in panto.

He can currently be heard in the pre-school Channel Five cartoon, The Beeps. He has also taken his Wacaday show around the world, and when they return from Australia, Timmy will head straight to Weston-super-Mare to rehearse for the Christmas panto.

No doubt it will be 'utterly brilliant'.