Happy news

I had a bit of surreal experience at precisely 4am this morning (and don't worry mother, this isn't going to be rude).

As is the current norm, Jamie was creating havoc and was determined not to let either Vanessa or me get back to sleep until he was ready to do so himself. Little ****.

Anyway, I did what I do on the hour when I can't sleep - generally to Vanessa's understandable displeasure - and reached over to turn on the radio news.

"It's 4am and you're listening to Five Live on the BBC," said the graveyard slot presenter. "And now the news read by Pete Wilson." And off went Pete Wilson with the news.

However, I couldn't now tell you one story he read out because, about three seconds in, I bellowed: "That's Happy!"

Yes, the newsreader was none other than one of my oldest friends and former Coleraine Inst school chum Pete "Happy" Wilson.

We had to sit in alphabetical order in our school, which is why Geoff Walls, Stephen Warwick, Pete Wilson, Richard "The Cat" Wylie and I became good friends.

Somewhat predictably, Pete was given his "Happy" tag because he wasn't always the most animated of schoolboys although did possess cutting lines in sarcasm and self-deprecation, making him rightly very popular.

After university, he got his first news reading job in Manchester on Kiss FM. I remember this very well because, even though you couldn't normally listen to distant radio stations on the Internet in those days, I was still able to access some of his bulletins in a rather ingenious way.

I used to phone him up in the studio just before he read the hourly bulletin. He would then put me on hold - here's the clever bit - and rather than be left listening to "Greensleeves," I was able to hear the live feed from Kiss FM including Happy reading the news! I know it was a bit of sad thing to do but it was a novelty that one of our number had become a very slick newsreader and, as was proven by my excitement again this morning, it clearly still is.

Since his Manchester days, Pete went on to work for the BBC in London, Birmingham and then back to London where he is now obviously working for Five Live.

The boy done good.