I worked on Krypton Factor with Nick Turnbull. That was the beginning of the best part of working at Granada. Pete Walker was the director on that, and Gordon and I used to travel around looking for, or interviewing, possible contestants for that. And do you know, that stood me in so much good stead later on with Surprise, Surprise and Blind Date – just that training of being able to suss people out. Gordon was invaluable at that. He was excellent. That was marvellous, because we’d go to the assault course, which wasn’t my bag – I’m afraid of a blade of grass – because Chris Kerr was in charge of researchers. This is, I think, another flaw in Granada, although it could be a strength – you did not have a choice where you went, you were told. You didn’t say, “Hey guys, I’d like to do Krypton Factor.” So anyway, I’ll have to go back to Krypton Factor, because I was always sent out to do what was known as the intelligence tests, those three dimensional things that Jerry used to design, who was a maths professor in Manchester. And if I could do them in too speedily a time, they had to modify them. I couldn’t do them at all, or it took too long, because you had a limited studio, how long people could take, then they were modified. So I really enjoy that little tiny bit of power of saying, “This doesn’t work.” And Nick Turnbull was a terrific producer as well, and Gordon, and Pete Walker – it was just one of those times at Granada, and in television, and it’s happened all too infrequently, where you get a team and everyone’s gelled.
