When asked to name your favourite year, I’m not sure that 2020 would be high on anybody’s list. The CEO of Zoom might disagree, perhaps sailing around the Caribbean on his yacht pulled by a fleet of swans. But almost everybody else who has lived through it will have very distinct memories of the deep unpleasant- ness – lockdown lost jobs, strained relationships and even worse. And above all, the overriding oddness as our lives were utterly transformed by a global pandemic. For me, that feeling was only heightened by something I brought upon myself in the spring, as I somehow fashioned our entirely unwitting Labradors, Olive and Mabel, into viral stars of the internet.

In my normal job (which, admittedly, is not particularly normal) I am a sports broadcaster – commentating on all manner of events, mainly for the BBC, but really for anybody who will employ me. It is a hugely enjoyable profession and one that I am very fortunate to do – travelling around, describing the action in golf, rugby, tennis, athletics and other major events besides. But it does rather depend on sport actually taking place, which has never been an issue. Until this strange year of 2020.

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