Earliest TV memory?
I remember Saturday morning telly – Batman especially – and having Ready Brek, which was really quite disgusting. Apparently I used to see my dad [Johnny Ball] on Play School, and would brag to my friends that “my dad gets really small and climbs inside my TV”. I didn’t quite understand how he was in there. My kids did the same: “Why can’t I be in Scooby-Doo?”
Bring back...
I wished they did more things like How and Tomorrow’s World. Programmes about how things work. I think they’re missing a trick with that. There are the guys who blow each other up on Experimental, I suppose. But I guess technology is so bonkers now that the concept is quite dated; a show saying “One day we’ll have hoverboards” isn’t as impressive now. Richard Ayoade’s Gadget Man is great, but then that’s more about Richard Ayoade being a genius than the tech.
Unmissable show?
Transparent and Togetherness, which both feature the Duplass brothers, who I think are geniuses. To me, Transparent is one of the best family dramas since The Sopranos. Just when you think your family is fucked up, you see other families that are more fucked up. It’s just brilliant television. Togetherness is beautifully done and moving and hilarious as well. Hurrah to the Duplass brothers.
Guilty pleasure?
In my middle age I seem to love a bit of pastoral telly: Countryfile, Springwatch. I love watching people in nature. It’s a moment of calm, it’s a moment of meditation… Norman [Cook, Ball’s husband] really loves those “police camera action” programmes!
Mastermind specialist subject?
The recordings of Barbra Streisand. I was a really camp child! In the 70s, an age of all these amazing musical subcultures, I was sitting in my living room singing to my dad’s Streisand records.
Zoë Ball co-presents new gameshow Can’t Touch This, from Saturday 26 March, BBC1
