Judith Chalmers reveals The Queen's joke as she presented her OBE in 1994

I started broadcasting at 13. A teacher said she thought I had rather a good voice, which was very nice of her, and she told me about Children’s Hour – she asked if my parents could write a letter for me to audition, and they did.

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My audition was on 1 April, but thankfully it was after midday. Then I became an announcer for the BBC. I did my first announcement on 8 October, 1960. I’d never used Autocue before.

When I received my OBE in 1994, I promise you the Queen said to me: ‘I’m glad you’re in the country today.’ I couldn’t believe it! Somebody must whisper in her ear before you come up: ‘She’s about travel, always away.’ I’ve never forgotten that.

There was a little box which you operated with your foot. I did a quick run-through, put the box back and when the red light went on, I said: ‘Good evening, everyone’ and started pressing frantically with my foot but it wouldn’t move. I hadn’t put it back in properly. I managed to get through it.

So many people are called Judith Chalmers. I could have a club if I wanted to. On a holiday to South Africa – and this sort of thing happens all the time – a lady and a chap came up to me and she said: ‘I want to introduce you to Judith Chalmers.’ I thought: ‘Hang on, she must be a bit dippy.’ But her husband was called Judith Chalmers.

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One day that changed my life was meeting my husband [sports broadcaster Neil Durden-Smith]. That was in BBC Broadcasting House. He was a producer and I was working on a holiday programme called Holiday Hour. Durders invited me to a party and when everyone else went off to dinner, we were still talking. We met and married in three- and-a-half months. That was 53 years ago.

I love beaches but I’m not a good swimmer. I’m a bit frightened of [water], to be honest. I was held under some water at school by someone thinking it was fun. I remember that to this day.

I’m trying to learn banter. I’m not used to it. When I hear a chap talking about another chap – quite openly and publicly – I will say: ‘Don’t say things like that to hurt him.’ But it’s just men talking. My son Mark [Durden-Smith, TV presenter] says: ‘Mother, you must learn what banter is.’ Last year at a friend’s birthday in Portugal there were three chaps at a table who were doing banter, but this year they said they wouldn’t because it’d upset me. That must be very dull of me to be like that, mustn’t it?

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An expression I hear all the time is: ‘Does Judith Chalmers have a passport?’ Like: ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ I’m delighted about that after 30 years of presenting Wish You Were Here. Once, all these little boys were sitting on camels waiting for a race to begin and I had to do a piece about the United Arab Emirates but I couldn’t say it. They call me ‘Take One Chalmers’ – but this took 13 takes. By the time I finally got it the race had started and the boys had gone.

My husband would say my most annoying habit is that I’m a worrier. I’ll say: ‘Have you shut the garage door? Are you sure you’ve shut the garage door?’ He’ll say yes but then I’ll check. He says I must stop worrying and I’m trying. I’m not doing it deliberately.

I thought 80 was a terrible birthday to reach. But we all went to South Africa as a family, all 12 of us – our daughter Emma, her husband and their three children and our son Mark and his wife and their three. We’ve got six grandchildren, five boys and a girl. They’re the greatest joy and the reason for us to keep on living for as long as we can.

Broadcasting has given me – and still is giving me – a lovely life. I’ve just recorded something with Ken Bruce celebrating 50 years of radio, because I worked with people like Ken Dodd and Michael Bentine as well as doing radio commentary and royal and state occasions. This is a very unsettling time in the world but, as Neil always says, one has to crack on.

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