Twenty years ago, when Simon was a whippersnapper presenter on BBC Radio 1, he received thousands of letters from listeners confessing their darkest secrets and worst misdemeanours, begging for his forgiveness. Every day, Father Mayo read out a confession - and then he'd decide whether to grant forgiveness or not.
Now Confessions is back on BBC Radio 2 Drivetime. Read a Confession below, then Send Simon Your Confession
Dear Father Simon and the assembled Collective,
I'd thought that this terrible secret of mine had been forever buried with time… I'd considered asking your forgiveness back in 1992/93 when the memory of this terrible act was still 'fresh' in my mind, but never plucked up the courage. But now hearing the tone of your voice on Drivetime tonight and the verdict of your collective I feel forced to wipe the slate clean and seek a fresh start.
My tale of woe concerns my wife Alison, my two sons Danny & Paul, then aged 7 and 3, my Sister in law Gina and her then boyfriend Adrian. Five people who were unfairly wronged...
I'm from a English sea side town and during a lovely spell of weather one year we decided to take the lads to a well known theme Park.
As it's just down the motorway from where we lived we set off very early to spend the day there. I ended up, as usual, shoving Paul around in his buggy watching everyone else zoom around on the rides.
We spent all day at the park and decided to go back to our home for tea. I'd volunteered to make us all something to eat. Something wholesome and filling obviously!
So off we went back up the motorway. Once safely back at home my wife and her sister accompanied by Adrian settled in the front room to chat and my lads went to the back room to play.
I now turn my attention to the promised feast. Home made chips (not those horrible frozen things) eggs alas englais (fried) with a generous portion of beans!! It turns out I'm as much an awful cook as I am a person...
So I carefully peeled and chopped the potatoes, switched on the trusty deep fat fryer which was starting to sizzle in preparation to do it's job, all in all everything was going well and my good and blameless life remained so far unblemished.
But not for long! As I stood in the kitchen waiting for the little light on the deep fat fryer to go out to tell me the temperature was ok I noticed 2 things. Firstly the light went out and secondly a rather unpleasant whiff coming from vicinity of the fryer. Remember no-one else is anywhere close by to witness the events or the smell and so all remain blissfully unaware that anything is amiss.
As I open the lid of bubbling fryer to my horror I see the remains of 5 or 6 SLUGS merrily frying away (it's hard to be precise on the exact number as several had shall we said come together as one).
What on earth should I do? We had no extra oil (or at least I didn't know where it was kept anyway) and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered to turn off the fryer clean it out and re fill it!
So I decided to take the only sensible course of action, I fished out the offending slugs wrapped them in kitchen towel and buried them deep in the kitchen bin, as soon as the coast was clear I immediately popped the chips into the bubbling oil in their place and closed the lid.
I thought it was best not to say anything, so I served up the Egg Chips & Beans for everyone, except myself.
Alison asked me why I wasn't eating, I sort of mumbled that I wasn't hungry really and then watched my family devour the lot. 'Best chips ever Dad' came the chorus from my lads, major brownie points for me from Alison and everyone was very happy.
Please could you try to forgive a man who's carried this secret around with him for nearly 20 years?
Surely I can't be the only one who's done this sort of thing?
Luke
[During the show only. Texts will be charged at your standard message rate. Check with your network provider for exact costs]
BBC © 2014The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Bookmark with:
What's this?