The village of Easterton, near Devizes, has become used to being in the media spotlight thanks to quiz show cheat Charles Ingram, but now a new twist has been added with the arrival of Big Brother's Jade Goody for a celebrity version of the TV programme Wife Swap. LEWIS COWEN went to find out how the unlikely couple of D listers are getting along.

BIG Brother hate figure Jade Goody was a big hit with village pupils when she did the school run, dropping off the children of millionaire major Charles Ingram.

Miss Goody, who made her name as the source of many less than informed comments on the C4 fly-on-the-wall series last year, put in regular appearances in the playground at St Barnabas Primary School, in Market Lavington, during filming for the Celebrity Wife Swap programme.

She moved into Major Ingram's home in Easterton High Street this week, while his wife Diana headed for Bermondsey, south London, where six-months-pregnant Miss Goody lives with her partner Jeff Brazier, a C4 presenter.

As part of filming, Miss Goody dropped off and picked up the two younger Ingram children, Rosie and Hester, at school each day since last Thursday.

She was mobbed by hordes of pupils, asking for autographs, some of whom came back for seconds. She handled it with the aplomb of a more seasoned celebrity, only being diverted from her signing by a torrential shower of rain.

Although she is barred from speaking to the press by her agreement with programme makers RDF Media and her own management company she told the Gazette her week in rural Wiltshire had been "OK."

She said: "It's been nice. It's lovely round here and the kids are just great. But I'm gagging to get back home.

"I really can't talk about the programme. You'll just have to wait until it comes out on TV."

Asked if she knew whether Wiltshire was in England before she actually came here, she gave the Gazette reporter what used to be called an old-fashioned look.

She is renowned for having said on Big Brother that she thought East Anglia was "abroad."

Excitement was high around the school during her stay in Easterton. The children who asked for her autograph on Tuesday afternoon were in no doubt they were in the presence of a star.

"She's great," said one. Another pupil added: "She's so funny. Especially the words she makes up, like minging."

Parents at the school had mixed feelings about her visit. One dad questioned Miss Goody's intelligence, while local mum Tracy Brooker said: "These people have to strike while the iron's hot.

"In a few weeks' time no one will remember their name."

Another mum, who has two children at the school, said: "She's quite nice. Quite normal.

"I didn't know what to expect but she's not as bad as I'd heard. Mind you, I don't watch Big Brother."

Sharon Charity, a parish councillor and a mother of children at the school, said: "I'll be glad when she goes home.

"Although I'm pleased the school is getting publicity, I wish it was more in the line of the good education our children are getting here."

There was some disappointment, however, when Miss Goody failed to bring the children to school on Tuesday morning.

Major Ingram dropped his daughters off instead, telling the Gazette's reporter and photographer that Miss Goody was feeling off colour after a bout of morning sickness. Major Ingram said: "She's OK. Just a little bit queasy."

He said that he and Miss Goody were getting on well.

He added: "We're all sworn to secrecy about the programme, but it's been great fun and should make very good television."

He admitted that his ensemble on Tuesday morning, black jogging bottoms, a grey hooded top and sneakers, had been selected by Miss Goody.

C4 said couples taking part in the series, which has not yet been given a transmission date, were being paid a nominal sum.

Others include Neil and Christine Hamilton and Edwina Currie.

Miss Goody was due to return to Bermondsey yesterday.

Meanwhile Major Ingram, who was convicted along with his wife of attempting to cheat the hit TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire out of its top six-figure prize, is still waiting to hear about his future from the Army, which is paying the rent on his Easterton home.

Since the trial the major and his wife have been inundated with offers that have taken them on a whirl of TV appearance including a lucrative deal in America.

The major's immortal lines

One thing that Jade and Charles Ingram will have in common is that they are both favourites for Internet mickey takers

The coughing that brought the major before a court on a fraud charge is now a comic classic.

The fact that Major Ingram needed a little help to reach the million pound question and seemed clueless at times is unlikely to bother Jade.

Here are some of the major's more famous lines on his way to the top question.

At £8,000 he was asked"Who was the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy? Adnan Kashoggi, Ronald Reagan, Aristotle Onassis, Rupert Murdoch? "Right," Ingram said. "OK. Erm, I'm not certain. Phew. "I would have thought it would be Aristotle Onassis," he said.There was a cough.

Chris Tarrant later asked "Baron Haussmann is best known for his planning of which city? Rome, Paris, Berlin or Athens?" Ingram explained the name sounded German, and became fixated on Berlin, until a cough and a loud whisper "no" could be heard on the tape.

Tarrant asked Ingram: "A number 1 followed by 100 zeros is known by what name? A googol, a megatron, a gigabit or a nanomol?"

"I'm not sure," Ingram replied, continuing: "I think it is nanomol but it could be a gigabit, but I am not sure. I do not think it is a megatron. I do not think I have heard of a googol."