Danny Baker

Nice listening to Danny Baker on Desert Island Discs, talking about growing up in a council flat in Bermondsey ('a terrific place to live') with his dad a docker and union activist, going to West Greenwich high school, and ending up with a 'big pile of bricks on Blackheath' while holding out against assimilation to the middle class and berating the 'suppression of working class culture' in the media.

He's definitely in the glass half full (if not 3/4 full) camp, with a great attitude of spend it while you can on your friends and family with 'no concern and no respect for money'. And no bullshit about the redeeming nature of surviving a life-threatening illness.

If you're not on twitter it's almost worth joining to follow Danny as Prodnose. He was absent from his radio show on Monday during the BBC strike, tweeting 'Yes stayed home today. Couldn't cross a picket line. Lyrics to Level 42's "My Father's Shoes" and all that'.

Here's some vintage Danny Baker from 1983, reporting from his local football team Millwall on their relegation battle for the 6 o'clock show. This was in the days of the old Den and with George Graham as manager. And yes they did avoid relegation that year.