Ringo Starr asked for my autograph!"

I've sometimes thought, 'I wish I'd been born slightly earlier

- KATHERINE HASSELL

Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Mel Tormé... they're wonderful singers from a bygone era and I love singing their music. If I could get in a time machine to go back to that period, I'd love it.

As a kid, in the lead-up to Sunday lunch, I'd go to the pub with my dad and grandad for a packet of crisps and a bottle of pop. We'd come back and Mum would be preparing food and playing those artists. I'd sing along. I sang along to everyone.

I was 14 when I plucked up courage to sing at a Pontins holiday camp talent competition and realised that's what I wanted to do. People asked for my autograph. I thought, 'Wow! This is cool.' I wasn't clever enough to be an orthopaedic surgeon.