Mike ‘Squeaky’ Mcclean

Comedy magician Mike, 50, is best known as the roving reporter on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast. He was also a regular on This Morning

What was your first TV memory?

Seeing Tommy Cooper on the Royal Variety Performance. I was 11 and I fell in love with comedy, and with Tommy, there and then. He was just brilliantly funny. I was interested in Paul Daniels too but I loved the idea of magic going wrong.

What was your first TV appearance?

When I was 19. I had won the Manchester Evening News’s Search For A Star doing comedy magic and got contacted by a producer working on WAC 90 – an ITV Saturday morning show hosted by Michaela Strachan who all my friends were in love with. On the same show were a band called Inspiral Carpets whose roadie was Noel Gallagher...

Who was your first TV crush?

Glynis Barber as Sgt Harriet Makepeace in Dempsey And Makepeace. She was beautiful, and really rather posh and I was working class so she was quite different from the girls I knew. I loved the show too.

What is your favourite current show?

I’m addicted to Grand Designs on Channel 4. I also love Googlebox and The Supervet. You’ll find me shouting at the telly, “Don’t let the dog die!”

Which TV show would you take to a desert island?

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. It was just brilliant, funny and so real. I loved all of the characters. I was working as a carpenter on a house with a load of building workers and the humour was just the same.

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

Any reality TV. I just don’t get it, making people with no talent famous.

Guiltiest TV pleasure?

The Great British Bake Off. I say I don’t like it but I always end up watching it. Matt Lucas is fantastic. My missus is a brilliant baker. She should do it!

What are you up to at the moment?

My autobiography is out, with all of my Big Brother memories, and I’m working on a film about a premiership footballer.

Oh, I Remember Him by Mike Squeaky Mcclean is out now in paperback, hardback and on Kindle