My Greatest Mistake: Jenni Murray presenter of Radio 4'S 'Woman's Hour'

'I managed to describe it as the cross-flannel cherry'

I first came into broadcasting in 1973, at Radio Bristol, and began as a copytaker in the newsroom. I got promoted quickly to news editor's secretary, without shorthand or typing skills. My policy was always to try to get in as secretary, be really bad at it, and then get promoted. I was the worst secretary ever. The biggest mistake was when the news editor asked me to send letters to all the local MPs in the South-west region – just to be friendly. I managed to put all the letters to the Labour MPs in envelopes addressed to the Conservative MPs, and vice versa. I received furious phone calls saying: "What on earth are you doing sending Tom King's letter to Tony Benn?" The news editor said: "Look, I'm sorry. You can't possibly be my secretary any more. You are useless," and promoted me to station assistant, which was my first broadcasting job. It was an embarrassing mistake, but it did mean my plan worked.

We were doing live programmes all the time in the early Seventies, and I was the queen of the unintended innuendo. Coming to the end of an interview with Dr Andrew Stanway, co-author ofBreast Is Best, I looked at him with my steely eyes, desperate to finish on time, and said: "So, doctor, what you are actually saying is, you would go for the breast every time."

When I moved to the BBC's South Today to work in television, I managed to describe the cross-channel ferry as the cross-flannel cherry. Even today, saying cross-channel ferry makes me nervous. I then described the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Chitty Chitty Gang Bang. You learn as an experienced broadcaster to write scripts that you can get your teeth round, and to practise reading them out loud first.