Stephanie Beacham thinks this year's Celebrity Big Brother contestants should treat the experience like a hostage situation.
The Dynasty star came fifth in the 2010 series of the show, and reckons her success was down to a phone call she made before she entered the house.
"I actually was given very good advice. I phoned up a friend just before I went in who had been in the SAS and I said, 'Give me a quick lecture on a hostage situation'," she revealed.
"The advice was magnificent: Never volunteer, take 20 seconds before you respond to everything, look after a weaker member of the group because it will strengthen the group, and find everything that's done to you hilarious, they are trying to humiliate you and break you down, they can't break you down if you find everything they do to you funny."
Stephanie said the contestants in the house - who include TOWIE's Kirk Norcross, Loose Woman Denise Welch, and Hollywood star Michael Madsen - should just be themselves.
"I made it to the final and I had a ball. It was an extraordinary feeling to forget about the camera and just live. Forget about the fact that it was televised, which I did," she added.
"It was an experience that I far from regret."
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