Kirsty Young

Presumably you weren't in it too, were you?

And as a little girl, you used to write plays.

We know you were very much sort of stage-struck when you were two or three, and you started penning your own plays and getting your chums involved.

And you yourself made all the costumes?

Yes.

Did mum lend a hand?

Oh no, no.

You found out later that your mother, indeed, was sort of hankered after a career in the performing arts.

What do you know of that?

That's something of a bag-handed compliment, yes.

Do you think there's a possibility that she resented the fact that you were having the life that she would have liked?

And you've said she thought she was ill.

I mean, is it your view that this was largely sort of hypochondriacal, that she sort of confected something to be ill with?

I mean, and she was only in her early 40s?

Yes, yes.

And how long did she live like this?

Until she was 94.

And so did she, once your father had passed away, did she live alone like that?

Did you ever tell her what you thought and said to her, come on?

No, of course not.