THE DAY JOANNA LUMLEY STRIPPED FOR ME ...

OVER the years I have been lucky in my co-presenters on Children In Need — Esther Rantzen, the charming Sue Cook, the effervescent Gaby Roslin. It sounds showbizzy and smarmy, but I can’t help it: everyone’s a sweetheart, a love . . .

One of the most spectacular was the wonderfully funny Joanna Lumley, who launched into a striptease, right down to her suspender belt (God, how I remember that!).

There were others who got their kit off, including a collection of TV chefs doing the Full Monty, but somehow they didn’t leave such an indelible impression on my quivering soul.

People love to tell me how much they laughed at Peter Snow dressed as Tarzan, and dear Patrick Moore and Roy Kinnear roaring in on a motorbike like a couple of World War I aces.

And then there were the disasters: microphones conking out as the show opened; lights going off as I handed over to Plymouth; people addressing the nation and not a sound coming out; others struck dumb in the dark.

One year, we decided to build the biggest Pudsey Bear possible, with all regions of the UK contributing. It was a lovely idea on paper, but in reality it looked more like a mile-high lump of coal.

I particularly recall opening the show from the top of a huge staircase — and only then realising that the camera was too far away for me to read the autocue. Filling the gaps, winging it . . . that’s the way I love it.

The cock-ups, the pratfalls, the breakdowns, the technical disasters, the sheer unpredictability of it all are what people remember most affectionately about Children In Need.