Gyles first appeared on TV at the young age of 20 

I was a student at Oxford University in the 1960s when I first appeared on national television on a programme called Panorama, interviewed by Robin Day. But my first break on prime TV was when I was asked to do a programme called 'Child of the Sixties.'  I sat on a stool and interviewed people about the decade and it was shown towards the end of 1969, And that was the only time I've had my own ITV Saturday night show. So, I began at the top, and gradually over the years, I have worked my way down! 

His career has been full of interesting people

I was very lucky. I worked with lots of remarkable and fun people like Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and Ken Dodd, who was the funniest man I've ever seen on stage. I was very lucky to know Kenneth Williams, famous for the Carry-On-films. I did "Just a Minute' on the radio with him and Dictionary Corner on 'Countdown''. But the joy of TV is meeting people. I once found myself sitting on a sofa with Willie Brandt, who was the Chancellor of West Germany, on one side of me, and Roland Rat, who was a glove puppet, on the other!.    

He loves games - Monopoly is in his family's blood

My father bought what he claimed was the first game of Monopoly ever sold in the UK. He took it back to his student digs in London and met a girl staying there that he'd never bumped into before. They played Monopoly, and a few weeks later, they eloped together! So when I was a child, we had this famous Monopoly set, bought by my father on the day that he met my mother - and I went on to become the European Monopoly Champion.

Scrabble is also very close to his heart 

I am much better at Scrabble than I am at playing Monopoly. From being a little boy, I played a lot. I love words and languages. When I left university, I thought, now look, there is a competition for everything. We need a Scrabble competition. So 53 years ago, I launched the National Scrabble Championships. And it's still going. My favourite word is 'yex' a word for hiccup - very useful because the 'x' scores you eight points and you can fit it into a corner nicely. 

He is a champion of the board in more ways than one 

I'm a great believer in games. I do think they are important. The family that plays together stays together. We live in a world of screens now, but you can't beat actually playing a game with friends and family. With some family members, I put together a compendium of fun games to play. It's a great way of breaking the ice and making people relax. 

It was actually Scrabble that ignited his love for colourful knitwear 

During the National Finals, a young lady bought a jumper that she knitted. On the front was a Scrabble board, and the tiles read, "Gyles Brandreth loves Scrabble." I wore it at the finals, then on TV for more than 50 years - I've got one for every day of the year. I love a jumper - a) it keeps you warm, but b) it's fun, and we need to have something fun to wear. If you wear a colourful jumper, you feel happier You feel the colours you see. So, bright, colourful knitwear is good for your health. 

Knitwear isn't the only cuddly thing he has a passion for

I've always loved and collected teddy bears. My wife once said, "There's no room for all this in our house, Gyles. We've got all these jumpers, all these board games - and now teddy bears. It's too much - I've got the skip people on rapid dial." I couldn't let her put my beloved teddy bears in a skip, so I found a new home for them. The lovely people who own Newbury Hall very generously built the Brandreth Bear House - the collection is now about a thousand strong! We've got the original Fozzie Bear given to me by Jim Henson, the original Snooty from the 1950s, the original 'Children in Need' Pudsey Bear, the first ever television Paddington, given to me by Micheal Bond... I love them all. But still keep one or two at home. 

He is also a keen and prolific writer across diverse topics 

I was lucky enough to work for the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip because I was the Chairman of one of his favourite charities. So I got to know him, and I wrote a biography of him, which was much acclaimed. Through knowing him I was lucky enough to meet and have conversations with Elizabeth II, and when she died, I thought I could do a book to give a flavour of what she was really like. 'Elizabeth, An Intimate Portrait' was a number one bestseller, I think because people around the world so admired and loved the Queen and wanted to get to know her better. 

I've written a lot of books, from fun language books to Victorian murder mysteries. My most recent is called 'The Seven Secrets of Happiness', inspired by conversations I had some years ago with a psychiatrist called Dr Anthony Clere. Happy people live seven to ten years longer than unhappy people, So, this is a book that doesn't just enhance your life, it extends your life. 

His podcast, Rosebud, has been nominated for The British Podcast Awards

It's about people's first memories. We've featured everyone, from Dame Judi Dench to Sir Keir Starmer. Prime Ministers, princes, movie stars, Oscar winners, Nobel Prize winners, Olympians, you name it, from my friend Alison Hammond to Joanna Lumley, from Sir Micheal Palin to Eddie Izzard. It's an hour-long podcast, and people just talk about their early years. The joy for me is I turn up the theatre and do one of my shows and I find someone else there, and I say, "Oh, would you like to be on my podcast, and usually they say yes! I'm touring a show next year called 'Gyles Brandreth Can't Stop Talking', and you'll guess by now why it's called that. 

Christmas in the Brandreth house is a large affair...

We always have a very traditional Christmas. Christmas crackers - we read the riddles to one another. The worse the jokes are, the more we like them. We eat traditionally. We're very much traditional Christmas people. So, the meat eaters will have roast turkey, and the veggies will have nut roast, but basically, we have to have everything. We have to have sprouts. We have to have everything you would expect at Christmas dinner. 

It's not all about the presents 

We have a proper, traditional family Christmas, and instead of giving us a present, I like to encourage the grandchildren to learn to do a party piece - to play the piano or learn a poem. I'm a great believer in the value of learning poetry by heart. Either before or after lunch, we gather around the piano and the grandchildren each do

their party pieces in turn, and it's their presents for their grandparents. They don't have to give us anything. They give us the pleasure of listening to them play a piece on the piano, or guitar, on the recorder or recite a poem, give a little performance, and they all do it. Brilliant. Learning poetry by heart is a beautiful thing. 

I have a project called Poetry Together, which is a charitable endeavour. We get children from schools around the country to learn a poem by heart, and we get people in old people's homes around the same poem by heart. Then around Christmas, we get old folk and young people together for tea, cake and a kind of poetry slam, and they perform their poems to each other. Queen Camilla has supported us since we began this project, and she sometimes comes along. 

Gyles loves a pantomime! 

Pantomime is the only uniquely British form of entertainment in the world. Opera, ballet, and theatre happen all over the world. Pantomime, as we know it, you only found in the British Isles or in countries with an association with Britain in the past. I just love it, the absurdity of it, the fun of it. It's romance and laughter. It's slapstick and serious stuff. It's a wonderful old tradition. I've written books about pantomime. I've appeared in pantomime. Christmas is my time of year. You need one of my books of party games. You need Rosebud to listen to, because they'll have a special Christmas episode for sure. Then you need to make sure, if you can, that you get to a pantomime. If you can't, watch my programme on Sky Arts about the history of pantomime. But if you can go to one near you, it's the one time of year when theatres make money, and it's the time of year most people do go to the theatre. It's the introduction for many children to theatre. I love live shows. TV is great, but live theatre is better.