Annabel Croft's 10 days of hell after being left penniless and homeless

Annabel Croft spent ten days living in a tent on the streets of London, without a penny to her name, as part of the BBC's Famous, Rich And Homeless docu-series. The showing followed a number of volunteers, who opted to swap out their lavish luxury lifestyles for the deepest levels of poverty which Shelter estimates 345,000 people across the UK are living in at present.

Croft, who temporarily left behind a stunning six-bedroom home and an abundance of creature comforts to sleep in shop doorways for a week-and-a-half in 2009, was joined by Hardeep Singh Kohli, Rosie Boycott, Bruce Jones and the Marquis of Blandford, who each embarked on their own journeys into sleeping rough. And while the now 58-year-old knew that it would be far from a walk in the park, nothing could have prepared the player-turned-pundit, who is currently working at this month's Wimbledon tournament, for the physical and emotional turmoil that she was faced with for the duration of the experiment. Recalling her experiences in a Daily Mail column the same year the series aired, Croft even explained that at one point, she was moments from being stabbed.

She wrote: "Slowly, I made it to the Strand in time to make the food drop from a van provided by a charity called the Simon Community. When I got there, an old battleaxe of a woman demanded, 'What are you doing here?' I said I just wanted a cup of tea but she said I was unwelcome.

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"She had spotted Fiona, my camerawoman, and clearly wanted to provoke a fight. I was still trying to get some tea when two Polish guys came at me from nowhere. Fiona and I were both protected - from a distance - by a security guard, Stuart Cleverley.

"Within moments he was by my side, grabbed me by the arm and whisked me away from my argument. Only when we were 30 yards clear did he tell me that one of the men had pulled out a knife and was inches away from stabbing me in the back."

The incident understandably left Croft "scared witless" and considering bailing out of the documentary altogether through fears of leaving her children without a mother should she have been killed on the streets of London. She ultimately decided to see it through to the end, crossing paths with people from numerous different walks of life - some determined to selflessly help the best they could in a showing of cameraderie, despite dealing with their own personal battles.

And while Croft was cast into some incredibly uncomfortable situations during her time on the show, from conversing with alcohol and drug abusers to building a makeshift shelter out of large pieces of cardboard, she admitted that it changed her perception of those sleeping rough entirely.

She explained: "On so many occasions I have walked past homeless people and thought, 'Oh for goodness sake, you are so young. Get up and go and get a job.' But no one will employ a person who has no address who can't prove who they are. It's a vicious circle."

She also explained how she was left "disturbed" by what she had seen but also "humbled and privileged" to be a part of the programme's "mission to make us all think about the homeless." Months after the show had aired, Croft also followed up with a BBC Radio 5 Live show entitled James: My Alcoholic Friend, where she attempted to track down a rough sleeper who she "got on well" with during Famous, Rich and Homeless.

It comes as Croft has been excelling with her punditry duties at Wimbledon this month, as some of tennis' biggest stars battle it out for Grand Slam glory. While the former pro never tasted the glory of a major title during her own respective career, finishing with one WTA title with a singles record of 49-68, she managed to give a good account of herself on the courts of SW19, making it to the third round of the tournament in 1984.

All eyes will be on WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at this year's tournament, as she prepares for a quarter final showdown against Laura Siegemund on Tuesday at Centre Court, with hopes of adding a fourth Grand Slam title to her resume. Amanda Anisimova will also take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova later in the day, with the other two quarter final places yet to be determined at the time of writing.