MAGAZINES: Mostly music mags and Manchesier City Supporters' Club mag, plus the odd lurid ladsy glossy such as Loaded. Select, Q(excellent range and detail), NME (though some of its articles are over opinionated) and Mojo (although lO-page articles on Jethro Tull should carry a health warning).

BOOKS: Have lapped up all Robertson Davies's books. He's a tour de force of ideas, a great story-teller, and writes in an easy, engaging style. Preferred Irvine WeIsh’s Trainspotting to Ecstasy. David Guterson's beautifully constructed whodunnit, Snow Falling On Cedars. Louis de Bernieres' family saga, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Wired, Bob Wood ward's biography of John Belushi and Albert Goldman’s biography of Elvis, although fans were up in arms because it chronicled his decline as well as his heyday. Marcus Berkmann’s Rain Men, a cricket version of Fever Pitch and a second reminder that it's all right to be creative when writing about sport.

FILM: Mike Leigh’s Secret and Lies : overlong at 21 hours, but the last hour was well worth the wait. The Rock with Sean Connery and Nichlas Cage: great blockbusting schlock. Seven: original, clever, dark with great central performances, but why did people make such a fuss over the gore? I thought is was remarkably restrained,

TV: Record a lot: Corrie Street, The X-Files, Dad's Army, Sergeant Bilko, Father Ted, Shooting Stars (anything with Vic and Bob), Mrs Merton, Have I Got News For You(but I miss PauI Merton), Auf Wiedersehen Pet and A Very PecuIiar Practice.

RADIO: I rareIy tune into anything specific. Wall-to-wall Radio 5 Live for Test cricket/football in the car. And my all-time idol is John Peel. His honesty and integrity made a huge impression in my teens. He sounded like that rare thing in the DJ jungle: a human being.

ADS: "Fast shuttle" through the commercials on my video tapes, but Boddingtons and Benetton spring to mind. Though I cannot understand why people got in such a stew over a few pictures of new-born babies.

MULTI-MEDIA: We’re on the Net at the Radio 1 office and I’m given letters which arrive via the system. But I don’t own a computer and I write long-hand.