Could a reality TV show go really wrong, where contestants are in true danger and cut off by a storm, not just from their friends and family but also from the whole camera crew?

This is the premise of former BBC Breakfast presenter, and Chester resident, Louise Minchin’s debut novel, Isolation Island, which sees 10 celebrities arrive on a windswept remote Scottish island in the depths of winter, their eerie, chilling home a derelict monastery for the duration of their stay, with a production team that seems incapable of keeping them safe, a gathering storm and a web of hidden cameras. And there’s murder afoot.

“I’ve read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, I just love that idea of the locked room drama where no-one can escape and they’re all in danger of their lives,” says the presenter-turned-author, who herself has appeared in various reality shows, from being in the jungle on I’m A Celebrity, to experiencing life in a different time period on Channel 4’s Time Crashers.

The inspiration for the thriller comes from her real-life experience of the horrendous Storm Arwen, which led to the evacuation of contestants of I’m A Celebrity from an eerie Welsh castle in 2021.

She’d had the idea for a novel for a while and had expected the main character, investigative journalist Lauren, would be in a newsroom environment, but changed her mind because of her reality TV experience.

“We were all evacuated from the castle in the dead of night and sent into little Airbnbs across north Wales. As soon as I went back into the castle I finished (the novel) off.

“The storm was very dramatic. It took I’m A Celebrity off air. We were in one strange environment then thrown into another with no access to the outside world.”

The fictional plot sees Lauren join the reality show Isolation Island to get closer to a charismatic Hollywood film star and fellow contestant, who she wants to expose for being the manipulative, menacing person that he really is.

Minchin herself has experienced the hardships, the hunger, the clash of personalities that make reality TV such compulsive viewing.

“I’m a massive fan of reality shows. I love I’m A Celebrity and I love that they always have a cast of characters, and I loved the idea of being able to make up my own cast of characters,” she enthuses.

So, how much truth is there in what she describes?

“The feeling I hope you get from the book is that feeling of intense scrutiny. You are being watched all the time. Everything you do and say is being watched. There’s a sense of claustrophobia and isolation from family and friends.

“One of my vivid memories is waking up in the morning when it’s quiet, and you’re the only person awake, and then you sit up and you hear the camera whir and focus on you. So there’s a real sense of being controlled. For me, it was very intense.”

Not being in touch with family or friends was hard, she remembers, while mundane things started to take on an importance, such as what you’re eating.

“It definitely plays with your mind.”

Time Crashers – where celebrities are sent to live in different eras as far back as the 12th century – had a greater effect on her.

“On that show, which I was on for three weeks, I slept next to Meg Mathews on a bed made of straw on the floor in a castle. When I came out of that show, for some days I wouldn’t actually sleep in a bed. I was only happy if I slept on the floor. I was really affected by it for some time. I didn’t want to eat real food and all sorts of things.”

Does she think there’s sufficient duty of care for contestants on reality shows?

“The ones I’ve been in, absolutely. There was an occasion, for example, when I was in Sport Relief with Nick Grimshaw when he collapsed because of heat exhaustion. The medical team were right on hand and treated him within a minute of him becoming ill, but it was a very alarming situation.”

Of course Isolation Island is escapist fiction, but so was the Netflix hit show Squid Game. Does she feel reality situations, as in survival show Naked And Afraid or Freeze The Fear With Wim Hof, are going to become more extreme?

“My gut feeling is that they are becoming less extreme because of health and safety, which should be a number-one priority.

“But I really enjoy watching human relationships and how they develop. I particularly enjoy The Traitors, which is a really clever way of doing reality in a different and inspired way.”

Since leaving BBC Breakfast three years ago, Minchin, 56, has become a full-time writer, occasionally standing in for Lorraine Kelly on ITV’s Lorraine, and is also known for taking part in extreme challenges.

The sporty presenter – she took up triathlon at the age of 45 and ended up representing her age group in the World and European Championships – has swum in shark-infested waters off Alcatraz, free-dived under ice and plumbed the depths of dark, wild caves, as she took on challenges with adventurous women around the world, which she charted in her previous book, Fearless.

Minchin no longer has the desire to be relentlessly engaged in news 24 hours a day or the 3.40am starts which took their toll when she was on BBC Breakfast.

As for further reality shows, she has said she wouldn’t do Strictly because she just can’t dance, but admits: “I’m desperate to do Race Across The World. It’s tough in a wonderful way because of the relationships we see forming.

“Who would I take with me? Definitely not my husband (David, with whom she has two daughters) because he’s my secret weapon. We have a very special relationship which is private.

“I would take one or the other of my daughters, but I’d probably have to persuade them. Five weeks of me would be pretty intense.”

Minchin would certainly be fit enough to see off other competitors, although she doesn’t do so many triathlons these days, preferring what she calls adventure sports – she’s recently completed a 20-mile charity walk in Derbyshire and is about to embark on a 15km swim around the Isles of Scilly.

She’s already got an idea for a second thriller – but what of her TV career?

“If the right show came along, I’d be very happy,” she replies. “But I’m also very happy writing.”

  • Isolation Island by Louise Minchin is published by Headline, priced £20. Available now