Pyjamas to work and baked-bean baths A sad start to the week, with the unexpected passing of one of the great innovative broadcasters. But for the many who counted him as a friend, Sir David Frost was not just a consummate networker, but a life-enhancing charmer, who brought fun and warmth to every occasion. His greatest social attribute was his ability to make you feel, while talking, that you were the sole focus of his attention, in a room full of the great and good. Unlike many of his peers, David Frost never once looked over your shoulder to see if somebody more important had come into the room... And then, sadness compounded, another friend, another broadcasting legend, David Jacobs, dies. A star of television in the Sixties, who moved to even greater acclaim on Radios 4 and 2. His opening "Hello there" was as beloved to listeners as Frost's "Hello, good evening and welcome" was to viewers. Nobody's irreplaceable they say. They're wrong. As I write, in a darkened room with a cold compress on my brow, sal volatile by my side, it's also time to reflect on a busy week. Last night was the Last Night of the Proms, and the 17th year I've presented Proms in the Park, a glorious evening of music and triumphal song, ending as ever, with 40,000 people lustily singing Land of Hope and Glory while the fireworks explode overhead. This year had the added dimension of Dame Edna Everage leading the chorus, and renaming it The Last Night of the Poms. Today, you find me still bivouacked in Hyde Park, for another feast of fine music, of a different ilk, BBC Radio 2"s festival, an afternoon and evening of live pop, rock, middle-of-the-road and whatever-you're-having-yourself music. As you read this, I'm sharing a little tent with all manner of complicated computers and radio paraphernalia, and the double bass, keyboard, guitars, drums and vocalists of a group giving their all. And speaking of giving (Light Programme link, circa 1965), the Children in Need appeal will be upon us before we draw breath. It's been my greatest broadcasting privilege to have been with it since the off, in 1980, when you all responded unexpectedly to the tune of £1 million. The total donated to the cause of this country's sick and underprivileged children has since risen to £690 million. As life president of the charity, I know it will never be enough. With your support, we'll continue to push that huge boulder of need up the hill. The spectacular fundraiser begins at seven on Friday, November 15, on BBC One, and goes on until way past midnight, but this has always been the people's charity. It's the baking of a million cakes, the song-and-dances, the car wash marathons, the wearing of pyjamas to work, yes, even the baths of baked beans into which the people of the UK fling themselves so wholeheartedly that help our children to have a better life...