Tommy Walsh reveals some of the pleasures in life that really tick his box.

My favourite food

It's the Irish way of cooking boiled bacon with swede and potato. You cook the meat and the veg together and the potatoes separately. Here's how to do it:

Put the meat, which should be smoked or green bacon, to soak in cold water, to get rid of some of the salt. After at least an hour, take it out and put it into a big saucepan with fresh water and a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to the boil with the lid on and turn it down to a simmer.

Meanwhile, peel and slice a swede very thinly, then pack the vegetables around the meat and bring back to a simmer.

Scrub the potatoes, leaving their skins on, and boil. When cooked, drain and leave to steam off. Once the meat is cooked (follow instructions on the pack - how long will depend on the size of the joint), slice and serve with the swede, the potatoes and the juices from the gravy poured over the lot. And put a big dollop of butter on the potatoes! This is also nice with cabbage.


my favourite drink

It used to be Baileys but I gave that up when I went on Celebrity Fat Club and lost three stone. I used to drink a bottle over a couple of nights, in half-pint glasses and they worked out that my daily intake of Baileys was 1,700 calories. Now my favourite tipple has to be a very cold beer when the weather is scorching hot. I had one when we stayed at the glorious Imperial Hotel in Delhi and it was poured straight into frosted glasses - just how l like it! A gin and tonic is another favourite for a balmy day, or a good-quality red wine with my food.


my favourite book

Some of these go way back to my childhood. When I was young I loved Lord of the Flies by William Golding and An Inspector Calls, which was also a play, by J B Priestley. As an adult, I've always liked Frederick Forsyth's thrillers and The Devil's Alternative is my all-time favourite because it has a terrific twist in the tail.


my favourite holiday

Actually, I had a great one last year. In 2003 I only had five days off but last year I managed to take two whole weeks with my wife and our three children - Charlotte, 17, Natalie, 14 and Jonjo, 11. We rented a very beautiful villa about 100 kilometres north of Benidorm at a place called Havea. Friends of ours have a place out there so we met up with them and ended up having a couple of late nights doing the karaoke with them in a little Spanish bar. My ideal holiday is somewhere I haven't got to travel too far on a plane to get to - up to three hours away, that's enough for me!

When I go on holiday at the moment I need to go somewhere warm where I can relax because I'm always so exhausted from work. It takes me nearly a week to get back to normal. But I'd like to have the time to do some weekend trips away to northern Europe, places like Prague,Vienna and Venice.


my favourite tv programme

Without a doubt QI, with the wonderful Stephen Fry. I love it, he's one of my favourite people and it is what I call proper television. He's so knowledgeable and such a charming man with such an endearing personality. He'd be the first person on my fantasy dinner guest list, and I'd love the chance to work with him.


my favourite film

To appeal to me, a film has to be well-written, to move along at a great pace and to have a twist so it makes you think. It should also be well-shot and it must be visually effective. I have so many favourite films but these are a few of the ones I watch time and time again: The Great Escape with Steve McQueen The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara Kill Charlie Varrick with Walter Matthau as a bank robber The Ninth Configuration with Stacy Keach, which is about ex-Vietnam heroes and features one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen.

my favourite job

It had to be when I worked with my father, especially in the latter years with him. It was such good fun. But the most emotional job would have been going to Uganda with Davina McCall for Comic Relief. We built three houses in a day for homeless families. That was really sad.

My favourite high point of any job was doing the Millennium garden for Nelson Mandela (above) and then meeting him, and my most privileged job has been awarding the Duke of Edinburgh awards, which I've done about six times now. It is a very valid association and I don't believe the Duke has ever once missed an award ceremony in all the time it has been going.


my favourite diy tool

I have a favourite ancient and a favourite modern one. The ancient one which is still valid today is a string line and plumb-bob. With it you can build anything because the plumb-bob gives you a vertical line and when you've got your verticals up straight you use it to give you a straight horizontal line between them. It's the most useful thing in my tool box although many people tend to use laser levels these days.

My favourite modern tool, the tool which has done for the building trade what the car has done for independent travel, is the cordless drill. There's nothing else to compare it with for creating a huge burst of interest in DIY.