CLIVE ANDERSON had a shock when he visited Guernsey at the weekend.

He said he had not been led to expect to get his hands dirty from the invitation he had been given.

‘They told me I would be coming to give a talk somewhere warm and indoors,’ said the witty television host and president of the Woodland Trust.

‘They said come to Guernsey, speak to people, then when I got here they grabbed me and put a spade in my hand and asked me to dig.’

He was speaking after taking part in a tree planting at Le Val des Terres on Saturday.

But the presenter of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and regular guest of Have I Got News For You, was happy to pick up a spade and help more than 35 volunteers, though he thought some were going a bit far with their digging.

‘Wow, this isn’t a hole to plant a tree in, it’s an escape tunnel,’ he quipped at one enthusiastic volunteer’s efforts.