My first virtual acquaintance with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall came when I stumbled across his slightly surreal Channel Four series, TV Dinners. It's a rare talent, to be able to laugh at eccentrics without ever being nasty, and Hugh is a master of the art. At once, I knew we'd get along. The next thing I knew, he was playing at smallholding in Dorset in Escape To River Cottage. Watching his slightly dotty, but always entertaining, mad professor antics, Hugh became my hero.