ELLO, ello, ello - who's this in the Celebrity Big Brother house?

Brighton's Chris Ellison, who is best known for playing DCI Frank Burnside in The Bill and the spin-off series Burnside, has arrived in the reality TV show.

Despite labelling himself a "recluse", he is now rubbing shoulders with fellow celebrities in the Big Brother House for a special UK vs USA themed series of the show.

The 68-year-old said: "I'm a bit of a recluse. I live down in Brighton and I like it there. I don't go into London that often now and I like it.

"But my son said, 'Dad, you need to get out more!' So this is going to be good because at my age you don't get that many new opportunities or experiences."

He joins Scottish TV presenter Gail Porter, 2014 Apprentice contestant James Hill and Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton among others in the house.

Just a month after the 16th series of the Channel 5 show ended, the new batch of celebrity housemates moved in on Thursday night.

The Elstree compound where the house is situated has been completely made over to reflect the spirit from both sides of the pond.

A New York skyline clashes with an English castle setting in the garden and, in the diary room, a battle of the famed Stars And Stripes and Union Flag jazz up the confessional space.

This is not Mr Ellison's first taste of reality TV: he won Celebrity Come Dine With Me in 2009.

Mr Ellison told a national newspaper last December that Burnside had "killed" him.

He said: “Burnside was such a strong character.

“TV dried up when The Bill and Burnside finished so I started doing a lot of theatre tours, because you have to make a living."

He said he was not called for auditions because he was "typecast".

Even so, he appeared as Magwich in a Theatre Royal Brighton run of Great Expectations in October 2012.

And last year he played an underworld torturer with a taste for old-fashioned hand drills in East End crime movie We Still Kill The Old Way.

He has also been on Soccer AM and presented The World's Most Stupid Criminals.