Secrets of the Children's BBC broom cupboard

"Edd needed somebody to help him perform. So Edd was and is a woman... my producer," reveals Andy.

"She would be kneeling on the floor, just out of shot to my left. So if the camera had panned right, all would have been revealed and a lot of children would have been very unhappy."

Unlike Gordon the Gopher – who grew up, went off the rails and recently came out of rehab – Edd is still six-years-old and lives in Cornwall.

It was the BBC1 continuity booth.

"It was where the announcers would sit. But between 4 and 5:30pm, we used exactly the same continuity booth. We just put some lights in it and switched the camera on.

"The pictures on the walls behind me, Phillip Schofield, Andi Peters, or whoever it was, stayed there all the time. So you’d have an announcer doing a serious intro ‘Now on BBC1… ‘ and he or she would be surrounded by pictures of SuperTed.

"We had to remember to switch the lights and camera on and they had to remember to switch them off during Neighbours. Otherwise, instead of getting the clock or the BBC spinning world symbol, you’d get the announcer in the continuity booth."

“It was usually the producer who helped the puppets perform and during Gordon's tenure, there were three.

"I can watch a clip and tell you who’s operating Gordon because of the way he performs. Gordon adopted the personality of the person operating him.”

"We had to operate the desk in the continuity booth ourselves. We’d have to remember to press the right buttons and to switch our microphone on, or nothing happened.

"Breakdowns were common. For example, cartoons were played off reels back then and I remember one day the reel just snapped.

"You couldn't just put the next programme out early. If the Radio Times said 4:15pm, you had to wait until then. And so you’d just fill. I did four or five minutes once, although it felt longer!

"That’s when you earned your money. You would reach down to your little box of letters and stuff that had been sent in. It was great fun."

Edd the Duck almost had to fill in the clip above when an out-of-breath Andy admits he's just hotfooted it down the corridor in time for his moment. Even the camera is jumpy.

Kirsten O’Brien once had to fill for the entire duration of a Popeye cartoon, while Toby Anstis had to cope with no lighting in the broom cupboard one afternoon – they used torches instead.

No broom cupboard inhabitants escaped without being gunged.

"Do you know – I didn’t ever dare ask what gunge was," says Crane.

"You didn’t want to ask the props boys what they’d put in it, because you knew they'd be thinking: 'Here we go. Some prima donna presenter who thinks he’s a star!'

"It was mostly wallpaper paste and food colouring… I’d like to think. Beyond that, I’ve no idea! It was usually very slimy and very cold."

Viewers voted for Andy Crane to be gunged in 1988, as part of Comic Relief. He beat Phillip Schofield and Terry Wogan in the vote. Sadly, we couldn't find that clip, but here's Phillip Schofield enjoying a slimy shower at the hands of Noel Edmonds on Saturday Roadshow.