Today I met a really remarkable and inspirational young man called Dean Young who’s a shop supervisor in Slough, but who should have a new career as an ambassador for adult literacy! Dean is suddenly famous, after featuring in a recent episode of Mary Portas’ Secret Shopper programme on Channel 4. On air, in front of tv cameras, Dean was forced to admit he’d got to the grand old age of 31' without being able to read or write. It's something of which he’s always been ashamed, and has spent his life covering up. At school, he used to deliberately get into trouble to avoid handing in written work, or he’d use his charm to avoid confrontation.

Nowadays, he’s a Dad, and longs to be able to read his own children their bedtime stories. But all of that changed, when Mary Portas got him some tuition. Dean says he enjoyed every minute of it. He can now write notes and shop signs, and can do some basic reading – and he’s determined to go on learning. He’s got bags of personality, and strongly believes now that illiteracy is nothing to be ashamed of, and he’s rather glad the cat is out of the bag. In fact, it’s all made him a local celebrity.

The adult literacy campaign would do well to embrace Dean as their ambassador. He’s bold, he’s brave and he’s got the gift of the gab. I reckon he’d appeal to thousands of people like him who, through no particular fault, have ended up without the basic skills of reading and writing, and spend their lives hoping they’ll never be “found out”. Dean is already a bit of a star – and his bright light should be used to help others. Come on, literacy people, give him a job.

They’ve been part of all our lives for the past thirty years, and now they’re suffering from Empty Nest syndrome. They’re the Waltons – the guys who had the world’s first ever girl sextuplets. They’re on my show today, and they come across as the nicest and most sane people you could have ever met. Yet, to suddenly discover you’re expecting six babies must have put them through such difficult times, you can barely imagine how they got through it. Have a listen to them talking to me about Hannah, Ruth, Lucie, Kate, Sarah and Jennie.

Emma Freud has SO many. Coming from a famous family (her great grandad was Sigmund, her father Clement, her uncle Lucien) might, you think, be enough to make an interesting life, but Emma has always been bubbling along the top of the broadcasting hierarchy, plus her life partner is film maker Richard Curtis. On top of that, she’s now been awarded an OBE for her work with Comic Relief. It’s meant she’s met some of the most interesting people all over the world, at the most interesting times.

It makes her a great interviewee, too!