A regional daily reporter scooped the national showbiz hacks by landing a top reality TV exclusive.

The Grimsby Telegraph yesterday became the first to reveal that The Only Way is Essex hearthrob Mark Wright is to take part in the new series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

Telegraph entertainments reporter Katy Forrester landed the scoop after tracking down Mark’s brother, who revealed that he was heading to Australia for the ITV series.

He appeared in his last episode of ‘TOWIE’ last night, ahead of his departure for the Australian jungle.

Mark has family connections with the Telegraph’s North-East Lincolnshire patch and is due to visit Cleethorpes on 17 December, after the end of I’m a Celebrity.

He will appear at the town’s Amishi club with the Telegraph set to give away 20 VIP tickets for the occasion.

Editor Michelle Hurst said:  “Full credit to our reporter, Katy Forrester, who stealthily seeks out the best entertainments stories with local angles and has come up trumps once again.

“She set up an exclusive with the local club to run the story before the end of the latest series of TOWIE and tracked down Mark Wright’s brother in order to get the inside gossip on what was a good tale for us.

“Her previous exclusive story with Adele was picked up by the nationals the following day also, and whilst local angles to national celebrities do not come up every day, we know Katy will be the first to tell us such news.”

The story has since been followed up by most of the national tabloids and was on the front page of this morning’s Metro.