Born in 1938, Johnny Ball began his career as a Butlin’s Redcoat and stand-up comedian before presenting the BBC’s Playschool in 1967. He went on to write and present more than 20 factual shows popularising maths, including the Emmy- and BAFTA-winning Think of a Number.

He has one daughter, BBC broadcaster Zoe, 54, from his first marriage, and two sons, Nick, 48, and Dan, 46, from his second marriage to Dianne. The couple live in Buckinghamshire.

Best childhood memory?

When I was about seven or eight, my parents took me to a pub in Bristol during the Second World War. A fellow came up and said, “I’m going to teach you how the Russians do multiplication,” and I was fascinated. I was hooked on maths forever. All the books and TV shows about numbers that followed stemmed from that moment.

The other thing I remember is my dad, who was a very funny man, stealing a yard-long ceramic sewage pipe from work – by actually wearing it under a gabardine mac that was three sizes too big for him – and turning it into an umbrella stand. We moved to Bolton in 1949, but I don’t think my parents were ever as happy again as they were in Bristol.

Best day of your life?

I was performing in Blackpool and, at the time, I was married to my first wife, but the marriage was a mess. It was non-existent. I was on the pier when a fortune teller called Madame Prospero asked me to take her picture, which I did. Then she said, “I’ll give you a palm reading,” and told me, “You’ve got two women in your life.” I said, “You mean my wife and my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Zoe?” and she said, “No. Two women. You’re at a crossroads, and this is the best hand I’ve ever seen in my life. Your career goes on and on, but it’s all down to the decision about a woman you make now.”

I said, “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” Then I spotted the compere’s assistant in a show by the pier, and it hit me from 30 yards. She invited me to a party the following night, and that was it. Dianne and I have now been married for 50 years. I got it wrong the first time and Zoe suffered because of that, but then we got it right.