You won’t BELIEVE what they tell me!

The best compliment I’ve ever received was when I was asked for my ID when I was 40. You have to be careful these days not to mislead people into thinking that you are older than you are.

Joan Collins gives me some age-related advice – and

has a little boast. I was on my way to the White House, when Obama’s aides called to say, “Oh hey, by the way, the President has agreed that your meeting should be televised”. I had to nip into a hotel and put on a suit.

Sir David Attenborough

confesses at the Radio Times Festival that he hadn’t thought to put on a suit to meet the most powerful man in the world. I hounded Chris Evans for months to give me a job on Top Gear but he kept turning me down. He was afraid that I’d usurp him!

Well, that’s Mariella Frostrup’s excuse, when we met at the London On Fire book launch, for not getting a job on the motoring show... I had to spend a night in a car park thanks to Benedict. A few of us were staying in rented accommodation together in Dartmoor for filming, and because Benedict had wrapped early he went home and locked the door behind him. The rest of us had to freeze outside all night.

TV producer Stephen Moffatt tells me he was forced to rough it after Benedict Cumberbatch made an elementary error while

making Sherlock. Julian Fellowes is not an easy man to sculpt because he really has no hair so you can see his whole skull, which is very square. And his whole face has got very small features.

Sculptor Frances Segelman pulled no punches when she told me at the Stroke Association event about working with Julian, right

– and he was within earshot!