An ex-con partnered with celebs on Channel 4's Banged Up says MP Neil Parish is an "absolute gentleman" and soap star Sid Owen is a "role model"."

Tony Gooch, 40, features in the new series, which sees celebrities spend eight days behind bars alongside former criminals.

Set in HMP Shrewsbury, which was decommissioned in 2013, the show features seven famous faces and is aiming to shed light on the state of Britain's prisons.

Tony, who went to prison before turning his life around in 2011, was among several former felons drafted in to add realism to the show.

Tony, from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, said: "The celebs were brilliant. Sid Owen is a role model for me - I want to be on a sitcom in 10 years. "

"He didn't come out of his shell easily but we had long discussions concerning being a dad and his career."

"I shared a cell with Neil Parish. He was absolute gentleman and I had some very interesting conversations with him."

"We spoke about Winston Churchill a lot and the Covid lockdowns. And the steps I believes the government need to take to reform the prison service."

Comedian Tom Rosenthal, journalist Peter Hitchens, singer HRVY, MP Johnny Mercer and Gogglebox star Marcus Luther completed the celebrity cast.

Tony said of them: "Tom Rosenthal was very funny. The writer from the Times [Hitchens] was a tougher cookie to crack. "

"Marcus from Gogglebox, absolute gentlemen - he runs a boxing gym with the mindset of getting kids off the street."

"HRVY I was very fond of. "

"He's very young but a very talented singer and I told him about the pitfalls of having money at such a young age. I told him to remember his friends and chose his circle carefully - he was a lovely kid."

Tony spent around 17 years in and out of prison for crimes including theft, weapons offences and aggravated burglary.

Following his last conviction in 2011, Tony decided enough was enough and he now runs his own production company and works as a recovery driver.

He said: "I've been screaming at how inept the prison service is and it gave me the chance to voice my views and concerns about it to two MPs directly."

"The whole purpose of the programme is to bring about change within the prison service."

"The only guidance we were given was no violence, but we were allowed to take it right up to that point. "

"24 hours a day over a 12-day period. No script, no nothing. 100% real."

"You couldn't have made it any more realistic. "

"I had a two-week period afterwards where I struggled to adapt back to normal life as you're put back in that criminal mindset."

Tony was just 13 years old when he was first convicted of burglary for stealing motorcross bikes and spent time in young offenders prisons.

He said: "We were never a gang, we were just close friends procuring cars for the older villains to do the jobs in. "

"They would sell them for huge amounts and we realised we were in the wrong game."

"So we went straight in, we had no doubts about committing crime. "

"We did kidnaps, wrap ups for drug deals, money laundering, handing stolen goods - anything we could make money on."

"Then we branched out to debt collecting. "

"It was a natural progression to bigger offences."

Tony has spent a total of nine years inside - including five after being on the run.

He said: "I had a fake passport to fly out to Puerto Banús and I was selling a stolen car and ended up in a police chase."

"I wrote off 16 police cars in a chase and I was eventually caught."

With his last conviction coming in 2011, Tony decided to turn his life around.

He said: "I did my lorry license, attempting to come away from it. "

"Some people invited me on a job, and I said no."

"They kidnapped a bloke, he died and all got 36-year sentences."

"That was the final straw - I looked in the mirror and knew this wasn't the path for me."

But Tony spent another six-months on remand when he attempted to buy a watch and had a gun pulled on him in 2018.

Tony has since gone on to direct the Joyce Family documentary for Amazon Prime with his production company, ART.

Tony claims episode one of Banged Up was the "dullest" of all."

He said: "I think it will change views on the prison system."