This week I welcome you back to the panel game Inspiration! (Radio 4, Wednesdays), a light-hearted romp through the world of inventions and science, from windscreen wipers for cows, to the remote control device that switches off everyone else’s mobile phones within 20 metres.

Of all the broadcasting I do, this programme is the most fun, partly because we are given no hint in advance about the questions; so we all rely heavily on guesswork. As a result the recording needs no preparation whatever, apart from a glass of BBC wine to steady the nerves.

When I was first asked to take part I hoped it would happen in Broadcasting House, where in the past I have bumped into Jenny Agutter, David Frost, and other beautiful people. Indeed the last time I went there I was ushered into that holy of holies, John Peel’s studio, and was allowed to use his own old-fashioned, squishily comfortable headphones, rather than the nasty plastic things they usually provide. 

But no; the BBC prefer to record these panel games as outside broadcasts, which means a big van, engineers, and miles of trailing wires. The favourite location is the library of the Science Museum in Kensington, where we performers sit at three tables on a little plinth in front of an audience of perhaps a hundred people, specially chosen for their intelligence, clapping skills, and willingness to laugh loudly at the feeblest of jokes. We record two programmes each evening, one after the other; so the audience have to be enduringly patient.

The pre-programme wine is served at 6 o’clock, in a funny little room with such a low beam over the door that most of us start at least one show with a bumped head. Five years ago the BBC seemed to be so occupied with their cables and microphones that they were unable to provide any food, although the wine was poured liberally. By the time recording finished, often after 9, everyone was starving, and the programmes were punctuated with abdominal gurgles, not to mention the effects of wine on empty stomachs. With the new millennium, however, came a dramatic leap forward in operational technology; sandwiches now appear with the wine, and you won’t hear nearly as much tummy rumbling. So sit back, and listen for the ‘sig’ (producerese for signature tune), and that dulcet introduction: ‘Hello, I’m Chris Stuart; welcome to Inspiration!’