Q. When did you start supporting Manchester City?

A. 45 years ago. I was eight years old. My dad took me to a game against Blackpool, with Stanley Matthews playing.

Q. Did you ever play football?

A. I played for my school and the local youth club but I was rubbish. I was a much better supporter than player.

Q. Do you get fed up being compared with Manchester United?

A. Yes. We had a great team in the late 60s and early 70s. We won the First Division title, the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Back then United were very much second best. Now things have changed and we are fed up with living in their shadow. We are really suffering from it.

Q. Who is, or was, your favourite player?

A. When City won the FA Cup in 1956, there was a wonderful old player called Dave Ewing. He was a classic stopper centre half, nobody got past him.

Q. Do you think City can go up to the premiership?

A. Yes, but we have to spend money. I think we'll get promoted this season.

"I used to think Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge was an absurd parody - until GMTV refreshed my memory of John Stapleton and I endured John Nicholson on Breakfast News!"

Arthur, Halifax

(From The Sun)

CONGRATULATIONS to TV host John Stapleton for admitting that he feels guilty for being a high earner and still receiving child benefit. When is the Government going to stop handing out cash to people who clearly don't need or want it, and concentrate on those who do?

Mrs C WILLIAMS, Leeds

First broadcast on Friday 23rd January 1998. Mel and Sue sing about the blossoming relationship between a young John and Lynn.

Listen to it in RealAudio (311k)

ITVs Teletext recalls an incident in which TV star John Stapleton terrified a house guest by barging into her bedroom STARKERS.

That this light hearted publicity article should appear shortly before the debut broadcast of his new program (recounting peoples favourite hymns, and called My Favourite Hymns) is surely coincidental.

Dont ask me about his new program, because I can't remember anything about it. But I would imagine it will go out on a Sunday in the Thora Hird slot.

So, John's gone and got himself a new job at GMTV. It's on the News Hour between 6am and 7am. Of course, John's always been a bit of an early morning riser, with the TV-AM and the BBCs Breakfast Time already on his CV.

Eamon. your days are numbered. The guvnor's back in town. And he's got some new suits.

(From the News Of The World. Or the People. Or maybe the Sunday Mirror, I can't remember.)

TV STAR John Stapleton terrified a house guest by barging into her bedroom STARKERS.

She frantically clutched the sheets after the housewives favourite switched on the lights and started ranting at her.

But her fears turned to tears of laughter when she realised he was sleepwalking - and dreaming she was his mother.

John, host of ITV's The Time, The Place, says his wife, former Watchdog star Lynn Faulds Wood, is fed up with his night-time antics. They have been going on for more than ten years.

He said: "Lynn tries to talk to me, but only gets nonsense. Some of my turns are rather bizarre.

"When I gate-crashed the guest's bedroom and flipped the lights on, the poor girl was very startled. But then she burst into great fits of giggles. i was ranting on, believing her to be my mother.

"She was getting no sense at all out of me. I got very stroppy, turned on my heel and left.

"She was the wife of a friend who was fast asleep beside her.

"It has been a matter of great hilarity since. I don't know what I'm doing at the time, but I do remember it afterwards."

John revealed that another time he was sleepwalking he went round and turned all the lights on. Then he walked naked into the kitchen and picked up the kettle.

He said: "I took it to the bathroom and carefully wrapped it in lavatory paper. My son Nicholas found it the next morning.

"Then it all came back to me. It was very odd."

That this light-hearted publicity article appeared at roughly the same time as The Time, The Place finished is surely coincidental.