He presents Pick of the Pops – 35 years after it first appeared on the BBC’s Light Programme- on Capital Gold every

He presents Pick of the Pops – 35 years after it first appeared on the BBC’s Light Programme- on Capital Gold every Saturday morning, and a rock show for Virgin Radio on Friday nights. In addition, he hosts regular opera specials on Classic FM and makes documentaries for Radio 2. I look in the mirror and say, ‘Hang about, should you really continue?’ But my initial excitement remains with me My feeling is that my best show must be my next one. I’m heading for 70, and people like you must think, ‘Oh, Christ, not him again’. Looking dapper in a green sports shirt and cords, he still has a full head of hair which is only slightly greying He claims that: “I’ve hung around like incurable leprosy. Now in his 70th year, the DJ introduces himself to me with the obviously well-practised line: “I’m still alive.” He joshes that his 52-year-old manager is “still a foetus”.
Although hampered by osteo-arthritis in the back, nothing has dimmed the twinkle in Fluffs eye. “I said to them, ‘Let’s have a giggle.’ I’ve learnt one thing in this business: if you can’t laugh at yourself first, you’ve no right to laugh at anyone else.”

Over his 39 years on our airwaves, Fluff – no one calls him Alan, he says – has developed a keen sense of self-mockery It’s one of the reasons why he has lasted so long.

I wake up in the morning and say, ‘Have I got a career today?’.”‘They Think It’s All Over’ Thur BBC1; Death by Country on tour to 23 Nov, live video released next month. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse were musing with Alan “Fluff” Freeman over how to use him in one of their priceless Smashie and Nicey sketches about superannuated DJs, when Fluff himself came up with an idea: put him on a Zimmer frame. One of the great things about him is that if he has a career plan, he’s kept it very well hidden. Even his best friends don’t know what it is.”McGrath confirms this “I take my career on a daily basis. In the younger generation of comedians, there’s a more careerist ethos You don’t sense that with Rory. 480, there wouldn’t be so much riding on it and it would still have been good fun.”Ironically, McGrath may continue to be successful precisely because he appears so uninterested in the very idea of success. “Rory wouldn’t like the notion of fulfilling your potential,” Fincham maintains “That sounds like getting the best grades at A-Level.

“But country is about relationships, and our songs debunk the ethic of country, which is schmaltzy and down-home.”Death by Country, however, remains just a bit on the side. “Most television is work, work, but the band is a borderline hobby If the single stiffed at No. At a concert last week, three songs in a row ended with a reference to oral sex “There is a lot of sex,” he concedes. I walk into pubs now and the reaction’s staggering – ‘What’s Gary like?’ People are excited by the rudeness.”Rudeness also plays a part in McGrath’s other current venture – a spoof country and western band called Death by Country, who release a cover of “Rawhide” next month. I don’t want to say it appeals to the proletariat – that sounds too Marxist But it appeals to pub and football people.

Unwinding in his dressing-room after a recording, McGrath sups from a bottle of Budweiser, strumming occasionally on his guitar.The criticisms, he thinks, are part of a tedious, politically correct assault on New Lads “I get fed up with the laddish tag There’s something sneering and envious about it The show has got mass appeal. One newspaper critic last weekend complained about the rudeness of They Think It’s All Over. I can’t be bothered with the burden of putting on a persona.”Not everyone is a fully paid-up member of the fan club, however. “What I do doesn’t feel difficult because it’s just being me. But he’s more comfortable, in footballing terms, playing a wide role on the wing.”Appealingly down-to-earth, McGrath himself says that the secret of his success is not complicated. He was the second worst actor in the Cambridge Footlights after Clive Anderson – though Clive could be quite funny if you put him in a wig and a dress Rory’s presented one or two shows which have been fine. He should be right on the end of a panel saying faintly unpleasant things.