Bill Bailey shocked after being approached for Celebrity Embalmers

Bill Bailey has claimed he was asked to handle dead bodies for a celebrity reality show.

The former 'Strictly Come Dancing' winner receives around 30 offers a week for "weird" TV programmes, and one bizarre pitch that stood out was for 'Celebrity Embalmers', where stars would get hands-on with preparing bodies for funerals.

He told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: "I get offered weird programmes all the time. One of them was going to be called 'Celebrity Embalmer'."

"It would be about someone dying and then someone coming in to embalm them, but wait for it... it's a celebrity!"

"You'd have someone saying, 'Auntie Jean has died, which is sad... but hey, to cheer things up, here's Peter Andre to embalm her!'. It's just staggering."

"When I got offered it, I was surprised. It's just one of the many things I get asked to do."

And the 59-year-old comic was horrified to be asked to kill animals on another programme.

He said: "They had an idea for a show called 'To Cull or Not To Cull'. The premise was that I'd learn how to use a hunting rifle and then go out and find an animal that needs culling."

"Then when I've got the animal in my sights, I'd turn to the camera and ask viewers to vote on whether or not I should kill it."

"It was mad. When they offered me that one, I said, 'Why would I want to do that?'"

"They said, 'It's not what people will expect!' I replied, 'I'm not doing it!'"

Bill's priority is to only accept offers for programmes that "mean something" and he has an interest in, such as 'Master Crafters', which explores skilled jobs that are on the verge of dying out, such as stone carving or blacksmithing.

He said: "I have to try to pick shows I feel strongly about. I go for things that mean something."

"When I was making 'Master Crafters', I learned that many jobs are likely to go extinct here and that would be a great shame. These jobs are part of our culture. That mattered to me."