This week I had a very strange experience. I found myself backstage in the performers' Green Room of the Royal Albert Hall alongside 90 other celebrities, actors, stand-up comics, presenters, journalists and musicians - what seemed like every household name in the country. We were all clutching a musical instrument, about to go on stage in front of a capacity crowd; 3,910 to be exact.
We'd each been given a kazoo - that smile-inducing small, buzzing wind intrument. In fact every single person in the hall was clutching a small red kazoo, hoping to obliterate the world record for the largest ever kazoo ensemble, currently held by 3,861 Australians. And the entire proceedings were presided over by my childhood hero, Basil Brush.
I was not on hallucinogenics. I hadn't had a hospitality glass of red too many. It was for Comic Relief, part of Radio 3's Big Red Nose Show. Our kazooing was to accompany the BBC Concert Orchestra.
As the conductor lifted his baton, I stood sandwiched between the majestic David Morrissey and charming Sanjeev Bhaskar who, with our fellow 3.910 kazooers, waited for the first note to be struck as a signal to start.
