A woman who spent six weeks living on a desert island in the hope of winning £1m described her ordeal as "fantastic".

Millions of television viewers saw Bridget Griffiths, 42, a shepherdess from Buckland, near Wantage, voted off ITV1's Survivor programme last night.

Ms Griffiths, pictured, said: "I had a fantastic time. I had no idea what to expect when I went to the island.

"The challenges were pretty much as I thought they would be, probably the hardest thing for me was dealing with other people.

"I work alone a lot of the time and trying to get used to being with all these people on an island was probably the biggest thing for me." At first Ms Griffiths was the most homesick of the 12 contestants marooned off Panama's coast.

She said: "I missed my two daughters terribly because the longest I had gone previously without seeing them was a week and to go six weeks was very hard."

Originally six men and six women were split into two tribes. They learned to cope with a hostile and sometimes dangerous environment.

With limited food and shelter, they had to compete in tough mental and physical challenges, with team members of each tribe being voted off until only eight were left to form a single tribe.

Ms Griffiths often found herself acting as the group's adopted mother. She relied on her outdoor survival skills, including the art of starting a fire. She said she hoped to keep in touch with a few of her fellow tribe members. She added: "I wouldn't hesitate at all again, and I wouldn't do it any differently."