I'm the world's biggest try hard!"

Country file presenter and TV Mr Nice Guy Matt Baker on hard graft and why, after 20 years of marriage, it still feels like they met yesterday!

After joining Blue Peter in 1999, Matt Baker stepped into a dream telly career, travelling the globe, filming everywhere from Sydney and Japan to Egypt and the Arctic Circle.

But it was in a BBC edit suite that he received the grounding that would one day take his career to the next level.

'I spend a lot of my time producing, editing and directing now, which is the love I developed back on Blue Peter.

When I came off-air, I'd sit for hours with the editors who were making all the shows and little films.

I loved that side of it,' says Matt, 47, who later joined The One Show, the BBC's hit nightly programme, which he presented for nine years before quitting in 2019 to launch his own television production company, Big Circus Media.

This Christmas, Matt and his 'wonderful' squad of creatives are behind some of telly's most-watched festive specials, including: Hotel Chocolat at Christmas; John Lewis at Christmas; My Life at Christmas, hosted by Anita Rani; and Matt Baker: Christmas Travels with Mum & Dad, the hugely popular series starring his parents Mike and Janice.

'In my line of work, I go off and film all over the place and I'm normally on my own, so to do it with my parents, to see the memories they're making and all the new experiences that they're having at their age, it's a lovely gift for me to give them,' says Matt.