He once had the opportunity to compere the Beach Boys tour of Britain, which Roger describes as a 'marvellous experience'.

BBC: Surrey - Presenter profile: Roger Day

He also got the chance to do the in-store announcements on the tannoy and compere fashion shows and exhibitions for them.

BBC: Lancashire - Presenter profile: John Gillmore

Aged just 18, he became a compere on a touring rock and roll show, a job that saw him introducing the likes of Cliff Richard.

BBC: Profile: Jimmy Tarbuck

We were then treated to a mini-drama which saw the many features of the phone shown off by the compere, his family and his friends.

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Mr Trelawny was acting as a compere at the Bulawayo Music Festival and was there in a personal capacity, not on an assignment for the BBC.

BBC: Petroc Trelawny

On discovering the compere was the Australian comic Julia Morris - a woman no less - he asked for a discount, before calling back to cancel the booking.

BBC: Are men funnier than women?

Things picked up later in the 1990s with the Saturday night ITV quiz Man O Man, before he landed the compere's role in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in 1998.

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Indeed, just hours after his would-be assassin had been wrestled to the ground, the French head of state was hosting a garden party for the public, on a packed Elysee Palace lawn, grabbing the microphone like a seasoned compere.

BBC: French President Jacques Chirac