She's just come runner-up in a reality TV gameshow and now Francie Smee wants to get involved in a game of a different kind - the game of love. The bubbly 57-year-old has returned to Oxford after spending three months on a remote island off the coast of New Zealand filming the BBC1 show Castaway.

On the programme, Ms Smee was taken out of her comfort zone and forced to mix with folk of all ages and backgrounds.

However, the primary health care administrator said it had given her a new confidence to start dating, three years after she got divorced.

She said: "I think I got the most out of the experience because I loved everything. I fished very successfully.

"I killed chickens which I gutted and skinned. I milked the cow and I tended a vegetable patch.

"I did not get involved in the stupid bitching, I was just there to enjoy myself. It was a beautiful island - it was heaven on Earth.

"The show has given me a lot more confidence and my next challenge now is to meet a man. I'd really like to meet someone who is outgoing, enjoys adventures, loves walking and trying new foods, likes going to the theatre and takes pleasure in gardening."

Ms Smee, who lives in Middle Way, Summertown, said she was finding living in Oxford again a bit strange.

She said: "Oxford is a brilliant place to live.

"It is very stimulating and lively, but unfortunately it is about as far away from the sea as you can get in this country.

"Ideally I would love to have a holiday home in New Zealand, where I could go for six months of the year, and a home in Oxford as well."

As well as looking for a new man, Ms Smee is also hoping to land herself a new job and said she hoped the show has proved that "more mature" members of society still have a lot to offer.

She said: "I want to do something really stimulating. I am not someone who is good at being stuck in front of a computer.

"I am a great talker and I really enjoyed being with everyone else on the island, it has given me a lot of confidence."

In the show Ms Smee was pipped at the final hurdle by Scotsman Jonathon Shearer, but incredibly she said she has not watched a single second of the series.

She said: "I would love to see it. I think one of the contestants might have videoed it, so hopefully I will get a chance to see it at some point.

"Would I do it again? Without a shadow of a doubt."