Different VerbDays ...

For some reason I always wake up very, very early: between half past four and five o'clock in the morning. I put this down to the fact that for years a milkman (who also conducted one of the local Male Voice Choirs) came down our street at that time and his rattling and clinking woke me up. Colin Leech has been retired for a long time, but I guess there must be some kind of fossilised aural memory there that clangs my eyes open.

I can't get up at that time so I listen to my radio on my headphones, catching something lovely on Through the Night and then getting the news on Five Live. Then, on a Wednesday, a normal Verb recording day, I get up about half-past five, do some geriatric exercises, eat some Fruit and Fibre* and make sure I've got all the books I need for the show. I make my way to Doncaster to catch the 07.30 train to London. It's first stop King's Cross and, amazingly, we get there at 09.07; I like to sit in the little vestibule between the carriages: it's like having my own little room, with a bench and toilet. Every now and then the guard will tell me there are seats available but I like my vestibule. It gives me time to think Verby thoughts. People sometimes say 'Do you have to stay over in London?' and they're amazed when I tell them that the last train home is the 23.30 so there's hardly ever any need for a hotel bed.

At King's Cross I scuttle down to the tube and go to Great Portland Street station. At Great Portland Street I buy a banana, and then I start to eat it in the lift at Broadcasting House. I stroll into the seventh floor, get the kettle on, and my producer Laura Thomas and I go through the script and think of some questions. Then, at 13.00 it's into the studio and the recording can begin! I'm a creature of habit...

This week will be different, though; the day will have a different rhythm because The Verb is live from the lovely Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House. We do a Live Edition every six weeks or so and, although the day still begins at the crack of dawn, I don't have to go down to London until later on; I find I'm like a man waiting to start an afternoon shift, pacing the house until it's time to leave. It will feel odd not going to London on a Wednesday; this Wednesday I'm visiting a junior school in Accrington with my cartoonist pal Tony Husband, making poems and cartoons. I'll sneak a banana in somewhere!

The day of a live show builds towards the event; we go through the script, we check out the Radio Theatre, we welcome the guests and get them soundchecked, I watch the audience coming in and try to welcome them all personally, I go on stage and do a warmup, I get my headphones on and then suddenly it's 21.15 and the show is on the air...

And I'll be waking up in the morning at half-past four, in time for a little slice of Through the Night and dollop of news...

*Other breakfast cereals are available ... [Ed.]

• Ian's live edition of The Verb is on Friday 29 January at 9.15pm on BBC Radio 3. For programme details, follow this link.
• Free tickets are available - for details, follow this link.