I have a secret too – and it's Liberace

We all know that Liberace had a secret – or ninety-nine. I have a secret too – and it's Liberace. I could claim that there wasn't much to watch on TV in the midlands of the 1950s, but I have to be honest. I was a devotee of The Liberace Show.

I can't remember exactly what was going on inside my head. Maybe I loved the glamour, the exaggerated hand movements and the way he smiled his wide-mile smile and looked me straight in the eye.

But the thing is, I didn't just watch from the safe distance of the sofa. He was so much larger than life that I'd jump up and kiss the TV screen. There, I've said it, and given my friends (and particularly my son) no end of ammunition to tease me from here to kingdom come. Mind you, my sister hasn't forgotten and still complains about having to clean my lip marks off the screen before she wanted to watch something.

On the other hand, kissing the screen was probably a great leap forward for me at the time. At least I was no longer running behind it to find out where the people really were.

I don't think I've kissed the TV screen since Liberace, although I did name one of my dolls after a character in Bonanza. Maybe it's just that I've developed more self-control. And perhaps as an early pop culture superstar, Liberace was simply a cog in my training wheels.

So, as that old showman would have said, I'll be seeing you.