If I Win The Lottery Tonight... Jill Dando, television presenter
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Your support makes all the difference.I WOULD do something financially practical to help those charities of which I am patron: a couple of heart-related charities, a hospice in Weston-super-Mare and a drugs project in Norwich. I cannot afford a great deal of time to help, so if I could afford something a little more practical that would be a priority. I would also make sure that people close to me were financially secure, particularly my brother and father. Once that was sorted I would thoroughly indulge myself.
On a more flippant note I would buy the Jaguar XK8 I have always wanted as my town car. My country car would be a Range Rover, because I would have two homes, as one does. I would also indulge my passion for furniture and interior design. My London home would be a shrine to modernism. It would be a penthouse flat, with wide picture windows, a lot of light, and lots of white everywhere. I would like a river view, too, but no further east than Vauxhall Bridge.
My country house would have to be within an hour and a half's drive of London. I would furnish it with rosewood furniture - I am passionate about its rich grain and colour - building on my existing collection in my sitting room at home. It is just wonderful. I would spend my spare time trailing around antiques shops and auction houses looking for more pieces but I would still work, though not as regularly as I do now. I would like to work on individual projects, such as documentaries, with enough time to research and present my own programmes. I think I would be very bored as a lady of leisure.
I would like to take four holidays every year. One would be a real adventure, canoeing up the Amazon or a safari in Africa. The second would be something in Europe, possibly Tuscany, in the summer. Then I would take a ski-ing holiday in a European resort such as Lech, and my fourth break would be at home, in my country house, entertaining friends for a week. I would go to Australia as well. I have been four times for work and once on a personal trip, but I would need to spend three months there to explore properly. I have never really been to the interior, just to the coast, and I would like to go to the area around Ayers Rock and Alice Springs and drive around the far north of Queensland in the rainforest area. Through my work I have done all my daredevil pursuits and fulfilled my ambitions around the world. Now I just want a nice time.
Jill Dando presents `Holiday' on BBC 1 every Tuesday at 8pm and the monthly programme, `Crimewatch', also on BBC1. She was interviewed by Diona Gregory.
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