MY TV LIFE

Konnie Huq

TV presenter Konnie, 44, appeared on Blue Peter for more than 10 years What was your first TV memory?

The Banana Splits, because I have two older sisters who adored it.we had the 12in single of their Tra La La Song on yellow vinyl.

Who was your first TV crush?

Andrew O’connor. I quite liked his children’s show Andrew O’connor’s Joke Machine where he told jokes and performed magic tricks and got kids to do the same.

What was your first TV appearance?

On the You And Me pre-school series when I was about five, as “the brown person”, along with other kids of different ethnicities. I was on Blockbusters aged nine and then in 1992 I interviewed Neil Kinnock on Newsround.

What is your favourite current show?

Chernobyl. Don’t tell me how it ends as I haven’t watched the last one yet! And I loved Jesse Armstrong’s Succession which made good points about the absurdity of the status quo.

Which TV show would you take to a desert island?

Garry Shandling’s the Larry Sanders Show, a brilliant American comedy set on a late-night US talk show. there were 90 episodes of that. You have to pick something that will last you a long time.

What TV show would you like to put out of its misery?

There are so many bad shows, but I just don’t watch them because they’re bad shows. there are a lot of channels now, it’s a big ask to fill them all with good shows.

Guiltiest TV pleasure?

Come Dine with Me. I love it! I was asked to do the celebrity version but turned it down. If I did do it, I’d cook a Bangladeshi salmon curry. It’s just a salmon curry but calling it Bangladeshi makes it sound more exotic.

What are you up to at the moment?

My children’s book – it stars Cookie Haque, a nine-yearold girl with a London Bangladeshi background who is smart, funny, hotheaded and into science. She’s basically a heightened me!

Cookie! And The Most Annoying Boy In The World (Piccadilly Press, £10.99)