Who would have thought stone cold serial killer Richard Hillman could have such a warm heart?

Surrounded by playful orang-utans deep in the lush green jungle of Borneo, actor Brian Capron is a world away from the notorious Coronation Street part which made his name.

The 54-year-old was invited by ITV1's This Morning programme to travel from his home in Hove to Malaysia for two weeks to help highlight the threat of extinction faced by these remarkable great apes.

He admitted before the trip he was not much of an animal lover.

But Brian has returned in awe of what he saw and is determined to make a difference.

He said: "This job has been like a gift from God. I did some presenting in the summer for This Morning and they approached me a couple of months ago to ask if I would like to go to Borneo.

"I thought it was a fantastic idea and immediately started having visions of myself as the main character in Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, travelling up river and into the unknown."

Before leaving England, Brian visited a sanctuary for abused and mistreated apes at Monkey World in Dorset, where he was introduced to the wonderful and strangely familiar world of the orang-utan.

He said: "I suppose it is a bit of cliche but orang-utans are incredibly like us. They're not particularly instinctive and need to be taught how to support themselves. This can take about eight years, similar to our children's time in primary schools.

"They also have lots of different moods, changing from happy to sometimes getting depressed. Unlike chimpanzees, they are solitary apes and live a quiet life.

"When you are with orang-utans you pick up on the little things, like their very specific, graceful movements and, although they have incredibly strong hands, their soft, gentle palms.

"You get the feeling they have a great sense of humour as well. They keep doing things like putting a bag over their head or hiding behind leaves if they know it makes you laugh."

The Borneo expedition started off with four days at the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

This world-famous facility cares for apes displaced when their natural habitat is destroyed or rescued from people keeping them illegally as pets.

Brian was so besotted he became patron of the charity. And although his stay at the centre had an impact, it simply could not compare to his time at the Hutan Research Centre at Sukau, where teams from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) study orang-utans in the wild.

Brian said: "During my time in Borneo I saw some fantastic things but the whole programme was leading to our trip deep into the jungle to see orang-utans up close.

"That experience was simply amazing. I have seen absolutely nothing like it before.

"There seemed to be something much more vivid about them."

Sadly, Brian is all too aware he was seeing an increasingly rare sight.

Such is the scale of commercial logging and, to a smaller extent, poaching, the WWF reported this week the species could be extinct in as little as 20 years.

Although the threat to their existence is very real, Brian saw enough brilliant work being done in Borneo to encourage him.

He said: "It's been a life-changing experience.

"I have realised we actually owe these creatures something. Their loss would be one of our biggest tragedies because they share 96 per cent of our genes.

"But there are lots of things being done and more money is always needed. The WWF does some brilliant and sophisticated work. Although it is a very difficult species to examine, the people at Hutan are recording everything the orang-utans eat so they can successfully grow forest corridors to enable the apes to keep on the move.

"Both WWF and Sepilok rehabilitation centre run "Adopt an Orang-utan" schemes and I would encourage as many people as possible to sign up so they can keep up their fantastic work.

"The Malaysian government is doing its level best and the natives are starting to realise the value of looking after them. I was there as an eco-tourist and they could see the money we were spending was going straight into the local economy."

Brian learnt so much during his trip he is desperate to repeat the experience.

He said: "On a personal level, it has been nice to separate me from Richard Hillman and be seen as Brian Capron.

"I was really impressed with my cameraman and producer team, who were incredibly skilled. I am hoping we can be sent on more trips to cover related issues.

"I like the rather informal way This Morning has tackled such a serious subject and would love to do it again."

Brian's time in Borneo features on This Morning every day at noon, except Friday, until January 22.

Wildlife experts predict the orang-utan is likely to become extinct in just two decades if the present decline in numbers is allowed to continue.

The Old Man Of The Forest - as these great apes are affectionately known - are threatened because of the destruction of their natural habitat through commercial logging and clearance for oil palm plantations and agriculture.

Orang-utans are also a target for poachers supplying the bush meat and pet trade.

Borneo and Sumatra, home to the last orang-utans living in the wild, has lost 91 per cent of its population over the last century.

There are now fewer than 30,000 apes left and only 33 per cent of these are found in protected areas such as parks or wildlife sanctuaries.

Trying to strengthen numbers is further complicated by the fact they only breed on average once every eight years.

But this has not stopped the WWF launching a campaign to save the species from extinction.

For more information, go to www.wwf.org.uk/ orangutan or call on 01483 426333. For more information on the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre appeal, call 01483 715522.