“I did magic tricks to get into medical school"

I attended Winchester House School, Brackley, and Uppingham School in Rutland.
I was a little young for prep school (age 7) and, as a rather molycoddled child, was quite homesick but I loved Uppingham. I had got used to the boarding system by then and thrived there. It was an open-minded and progressive school, always keen to cater for the unusual or eccentric, as well as being solid academically.

I was naughty, I'm afraid. I never liked to be bound by too many rules. I used to disregard anything I saw as petty or inhibiting – like curfew times and not going out into the town.

Yes, several. One English and drama teacher at my prep school really coaxed me out of my shell, and several of the music teachers at Uppingham were endlessly patient and encouraging. One introduced me to composers I would never have dreamed of listening to, which I loved and still do. 

I was good at sciences, biology particularly, and I enjoyed working with people. It seemed like a good choice.

I didn't think so. The hype makes you incredibly nervous but when it came to interviews the circumstances varied enormously. I was interviewed at University College London (UCL) and St Mary's Hospital Medical School, also in London.

St Mary’s was awful - a big long table with eight people behind all asking you medical questions. Quite how we were supposed to know the answers when we were still grappling with photosynthesis in A-level biology I don't know. It was ridiculous and made us feel stupid. At the end they asked me why I wanted to go to St Mary's. I replied that after that interview, I certainly didn't!

UCL was a wonderful contrast, a portly gentleman in a small office who fed me biscuits and chatted about Shostakovich. They gave me a three-C offer.

The best interviews are the ones that ask about you and your life and philosophy. The worst are those that expect you to know all about medicine already. The arrogance of some of the interviews reflected the attitudes of the profession and the teaching methods at that time. My UCL interview had me doing magic tricks and talking about opera. They found out far more about me than the 'academic' type interviews.

I really enjoyed UCL. Medicine is a funny old bird – very traditional, rather archaic and frustrating at times but if you are not in it, you can't change it. The challenge is to start shouldering other people's burdens when you are barely competent to shoulder your own. You deal with death and face the issue of mortality, particularly your own at an unsuitably young age.

We did. There is far too much for anyone to learn so the art is in working out which bits are important and which bits you can skim over. That applied to lectures, too. Once we had the important ones sussed the rest meant play time!

I have no idea. It was a rather fun accident. I think I must have been in the right place at the right time. It seems that the more television you do the more you get offered. I think I started off by talking about issues on the BBC news and it escalated from there.

It is an amazing, groundbreaking show which is doing a huge amount to dissolve stigma and encourage a more open and frank attitude to our 'embarrassing' problems. I am very proud of it.

We have had so much incredible feedback from people who watched the show and then decided to tackle issues from which they had been suffering for years. Cancers have been picked up in time and people are making better use of their GPs as a result.

The things that shock me most are not the gore and the yucky bits but the neglect and ignorance about many issues. Conditions that cause intolerable suffering are kept hidden and linger on when they could be so easily dealt with in many cases.

Slowly, I think. The danger is in over-saturation so that it becomes boring. We need to find new ways of giving the same message.

I'm all for peer-led education. There’s a charity called Sexpression which sees volunteer university students going into schools to teach sex education. As they are more like older brothers and sisters I believe the kids respond better to this than the stultifyingly embarrassing talks about sex that I can remember from my teachers.

I fear the worst. Technology is all about convenience and conserving energy. This is going to lead to slower, fatter and more unfit people. We need to be encouraged to do more and be more active and not always look for a short cut.

It needs to be considered the 'normal way', from birth, not some special effort that must be made which is consequently seen as rather a chore. Healthy eating shouldn't be seen as 'healthy' eating, it should be seen as eating normally. 

Yes, ignorance. Or should I say lack of education? People still don't know how HIV is transmitted, or that living only on chips and cake is not ideal for health.

I go to the gym every day if I can. I also love my music - opera particularly. I collect things, too.

The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle. It seems a little dated now, but is so like I remember my prep school. Things have changed since then, however!

A horrendous case of body dysmorphia - I am never happy with how I look.