Q: So tell us a bit about your childhood. Where did you grow up?
A: Well I was born on a remote farm in Oxfordshire, which is where my mum had been evacuated during the War. It gave me a love of the natural world. And I shot lots of things too!


Q: How did your lifelong interest in science come about?
A: It can all be blamed on a Canadian maths teacher I once had. I was wondering what to do with my life for the world to see, when he took me to one side and bellowed one word at me: "Science!" I went onto study chemistry at Oxford.


Q: How did you make it onto TV?
A: After a spell at an academic publishing house in the 1970s, I became a researcher for Yorkshire TV. The first thing I worked on was an educational sketch on why banana skins are slippery! Rather appropriate, don't you think? Eventually I made it onto the wrong side of the camera lens for Local Heroes, the show where I travelled around the country on my bike, talking about famous scientists. The series was a great success and it all went on from there.


Q: You've looked at such a wide variety of subjects in your series. Do you have a passion for any particular field?
A: I love the core ideas, low technology, the stuff that you can see working.
I love bikes, for example. I have seven bikes, which suit my different moods. Everyone should ride bikes more often, you know. Get out of your cars everyone!


Q: Tell us something about you that viewers might not know.
A: Well, I do love chess a great deal. In fact, and I'm very proud of this, I once beat British prodigy Nigel Short! He was playing six of us simultaneously, and I was the only one he lost to! Hurrah!


Q: So what's all this we've heard about lavatories?
A: Oh, I've always, always been fascinated by toilets. I'm working on a book called Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper, about the history of loos. Did you know that oldest surviving toilets in the world are in Orkney? Not enough people appreciate toilets.