My Saturday

With Crufts and formerly Blue Peter presenter Peter Purves

7am We have two wirehaired dachshunds Teddy, 12, and Bertie, three, and two Pekinese, Lilly, nine, and Max, 10 months – so they have to be let out. I’m currently supporting the #Rescueyourrescue campaign and am also the vice patron of Dogs For Good. Then we have a cup of Yorkshire tea – hot and strong, no sugar. 8am I have a couple of boiled eggs and some toast. 9am I’ll spend an hour doing the Telegraph crosswords – the quick one and the cryptic. Kathryn [Peter’s wife] and I sit in the breakfast room, which is also where the dogs live. 11am I wander around the garden at our home near Framlingham in Suffolk and look at the flowers – the peonies are just about to come out – and the long pond. We’ve had ducks on it this year, though at the moment we’ve only got moorhens. 12am I know I’ve got a novel in me somewhere, so I keep scribbling bits of it, but I haven’t planned it properly yet. 1pm

Lunch could be garlic bread or some bubble and squeak. Kate does most of the cooking, I tend to make curries. We’ve got friends who have done some food shopping for us, and have a fishmonger, John Cairns, who delivers. Then I get the ride-on mower out and cut the grass – it’s very therapeutic, though the most difficult thing is making sure I don’t drive into the pond. 4pm Prior to this [lockdown], Kate and I might have gone out to look at the antique centres in Halesworth. Now, Kate takes Teddy for a half-mile walk. 5pm I spend time relaxing with my Mac. I’ve got a complicated program, Trainz, which allows me to construct the ultimate railway. It’s incredibly addictive and drives my wife mad. 6pm

Kate usually cooks, and we’re thinking of having a virtual dinner party via Zoom, like my son Matthew, who had one with some neighbours in London. 7pm We found a DVD of Hanky Panky, starring Jean Wilder and Gilda Radner – a very funny and totally nonsensical film – so we watch that and have a very good laugh. We tend to watch a lot of old pictures like Casablanca and The Big Sleep. 10pm The dogs go out and that’s it for the

£7.99, night. I like reading in bed – my last book was All the Rage by Cara Hunter.

waterstones.com (Peter rescueyourrescue.co.uk)

Purves is supporting #Rescueyourrescue, a fundraising appeal from Lintbells to help pet-rescue charities affected by Covid-19;