MEL GIEDROYC

I love performing in front of a live audience and just stepping out in front of ruddy Royal Albert Hall is just something, I can't describe it.

This business is fickle. You have very good patches and less good patches, but you learn to ride them out. As long as you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll be fine. When you lose sight of that, you're in trouble.

Friends before work.

I've spent my entire life spelling my surname.

Only now that I'm a mum can I fully understand the terrible pressure parents feel buying presents for their kids. My mum had four children plus all of the extended family and she not only had to feed us all but she bought presents for everyone, too.

My father describes himself as a Pole of Lithuanian descent. At Southampton University, he read aeronautical engineering and then the family moved to Hong Kong - this was before I was born - where he designed aeroplanes. Back in the U.K., he worked as a civil engineer, although every spare minute was spent researching his family's history.

I'm going to be 50 in 2018 and I figure that I should try to get as much in before then. After 50, you never know what might happen.

The older I get, as well, bloody hell - time's running out. I just feel, jeez, there's so much to do. I'm not going to try to change the planet but make changes just in a small way.

My siblings and I have got the worst teeth in Britain.

Nobody likes a presenter melting in a self-indulgent puddle of tears.

I feel very warmly and joyfully towards BBC Children in Need.

I love a bit of Saturday-night TV.

It was an honour to be asked to do 'The Gift.' The producers took a risk asking me because, coming from a comedy background, I am not known for this kind of highly-charged, emotional show.

It feels like you are in your own little bubble when you film 'Bake Off.' There is no noise, the outside world doesn't exist when we are filming. It's us, the tent and the bakers.

The Bake Off' taps into nostalgic feelings about your mum baking in the kitchen. It's a big ruddy comfort blanket, and you get attached to the bakers. It also genuinely has a good heart.

I'm completely recipe-bound. Everything has to be prepped and laid out in separate bowls with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. I've no flair.

I met Sue Perkins at the Footlights, where she brought the house down at the auditions.

I love them all, there is not one member of Take That that I do not love.

My problem with present buying is usually lack of time. Not because I'm super-busy, I'm just super-lazy. I leave everything to the last minute and end up running up and down the high street on Christmas Eve like a crazed baboon.

Eurovision' lifts you off your feet - and, by that, I mean the absolute joy, total insanity and madness of the whole thing.

I'm always ludicrously early/on time.

You can't hurry a loaf of bread. You have to wait for it to prove and rise.

There have been a lot of technical advances in the bra industry over the years, (such as those with Cellophane straps that are supposed to look as if you're not wearing them), but the maternity bra is still stuck in the 1940s.

Any donation does make a difference. Getting involved is what makes BBC Children in Need so moving.

Believe me, you don't want to play to an audience of seven in a village hall in Cumbernauld.