ANIMAL RESCUE
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Dead Zone Level 42
Nat King Cole
All I Want For Christmas Is You, by Mariah Carey
The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
James Bond theme Anthony Hopkins Tommy Cooper
‘What are you doing?’ It’s like looking at an old prune.”
Nor does Salford-born John share Pete’s fixation with Manchester United. In fact, he hates football with a passion.
“I can’t stand it, can’t bear it. I’ve never been to a game and I don’t intend to.”
And this loathing stems from what, dare I ask?
“At school I was a bit bullied, Mike,” he tells me. “Sport is how you bond with other boys and I just wasn’t any good. So they’d put me in goal – and what happens? You let the ball in and then they hate you. It just grew from there.”
He’s also unnerved by football’s tribal aspect. “I get scared when I hear groups of men chanting, like at a train station.
“I go: ‘Oh God’! Maybe in a past life I was at the Battle of Bannockburn. That’s what it feels like.”
Not that he lacks a competitive streak. “I do love a quiz. Instead of watching sport I’ve used the time to read, study and learn. Knowledge is power and it’s paid off. I’ve won Tipping Point, Pointless, FOOD: Pan-Asian
DRINK: Lime and soda COLOUR: Cobalt blue CITY: Manchester HOLIDAY DESTINATION:
New England
GADGET: Swiss army knife APP: Wikipedia
SCHOOL SUBJECT: Drama FIGURE FROM HISTORY:
Leonardo da Vinci
SPORTS STAR: Geoff Capes ANIMAL: Chimpanzee
won 150 grand on The Chase, although that was as a team. And I came second on Celebrity Mastermind and Fifteen To One.
“Over the years I’ve raised absolute fortunes for charity on game shows, which is brilliant.” And tonight, of course, he’ll help boost the coffers of the RSPCA, Scottish SPCA, Donkey Sanctuary, Wildlife Aid Foundation and Blue Cross.
So I guess my final question should be animal-themed.
OK, here goes: John Thomson, if you could be reincarnated as an animal, which would it be?
Surprisingly, he doesn’t hesitate. John must have thought about this before. “A giant tortoise,” he tells me. Really? “Yeah, they can live to nearly 200 years old, Mike.”
And he’d seriously want to do that? “Well, it beats coming back as a fly.” Celebrity Help The Animals At Christmas is tonight at 8pm on Channel 5. For campaign details go to channel5.com/ helptheanimals