Moments from the past

Were you at Live Aid? This man was!

I well remember Bob Geldof coming into my TV studio to talk about this great idea he'd had to put together a live concert raising money for Ethiopian famine victims. Bob, his wife Paula Yates, and I later became friends, and exactly two years later, I went into the first stages of labour (with my first son, Oliver) whilst opening a fete at his house in Kent. But that's another story...

Trying to remember why I wasn't at Live Aid. I know I was in New York, working, and I watched the US end of things on the telly in my hotel bedroom. But one of my guests this morning, Shirley Boyt from the Reading, Wokingham & District MS Society, remembers exactly where she was - in the crowd at Wembley, watching the whole show unfold from beginning to end. She even brought in her LIVE AID T shirt - still in pretty good nick after 25 years and which still looks good on her!

Today we were nearly in tears as we heard the story of a lovely lady called Stella Collis, from Burghfield Common, who has been tracing her long-lost father.

He was a German prisoner of war, who had an affair with her mother in London, just after the war and shortly before he was repatriated to Germany. He stayed in England just long enough to hold her as a one-month baby, before he was sent back home - to East Germany, where his wife and adopted child were waiting for him. You can only imagine the angst and emotions on all sides, can't you?

But Stella's mum never spoke about her German lover, and never married again. He was the love of her life, and her heart was broken.

Stella, meanwhile, grew up longing to know who her father REALLY was. She dreamed he was a war hero, but gradually found out that he was "the enemy" and felt a curious mixture of pride and shame.

Years later, she's been able to piece together a proper history, with the help of a BBC Radio 4 Programme, "Tracing Your Roots".

I asked her - wasn't it worrying to find out just how much of an "enemy" her father was? Wasn't she fearful he might turn out to be a Nazi?

It was a wonderful moment when Stella turned to me, with tears welling up in her eyes, and proudly stated: "I found out he was a very good man".

It's a lovely story - can I recommend you have a listen?