My greatest mistake: John Peel, broadcaster

'I went to kiss the winner of Miss Bury St Edmunds, missed and fell off the stage'

At the start of my career – my first broadcast – I went on an R&B show in Dallas, Texas. At the time, I thought that they wanted me on because of my extraordinary knowledge of music, but I think it was because they found my accent hysterically funny. I had gone to public school, and the accent I had made me sound like a minor member of the Royal Family. At one point I was talking about a blues band and said, "Those chappies couldn't drag their pianos into the cotton fields to play their boogie-woogie." I have hidden the tape away, but every now and then it's brought out by my family to humiliate me.

The most embarrassing time, though, was when I got caught up in a charity event. This happens when you live in an isolated rural community. It was the Miss Bury St Edmunds competition, and I turned up thinking I was there for a nice dinner – forgetting that I'd been asked to judge. I was supposed to give prizes to the lucky winners, but first someone said he thought the judges should be made to walk down the catwalk. I am actually quite shy, but, emboldened by red wine, I decided to camp it up. There was silence from the audience – I am a fat, bald, middle-aged man with a beard – but I couldn't stop half-way through, so minced on to the end. The place froze. Then I had to present the prizes – I hate that whole kissing thing, but tried to make an effort, and went to embrace the winner. I lunged, and shot straight past her off the stage. It was in the local press, and someone took a picture that featured my shoulder and the back of my head flying off the edge.