For Richard Madeley, turning 70 felt rather like glancing out of an aeroplane window and spotting the faint glow of landing lights in the distance. The veteran broadcaster admitted that while earlier milestone birthdays had seemed like the comfortable midpoint of a long journey, reaching 70 carried the unmistakable sense that the descent had begun, and he said it "could be a bumpy one".
The presenter, who has spent decades as one of Britain's best-known television personalities through shows such as This Morning and Good Morning Britain, reflected candidly on the realities of ageing. Last Wednesday, he turned 70 and the milestone proved uncomfortable for him. While he insisted he was not in denial about his age, he confessed he had little desire to celebrate the occasion in his latest column for the Daily Express.
Richard explained that the reason behind his unease only became clear when a friend asked why he wanted the day to pass as quickly as possible. He then compared life to a long-haul flight.
He penned at Express.co.uk: "At 40, say. Even 50, with luck and a following wind. Plenty of flying time left! Another G&T and more peanuts, steward! Think I'll watch another film! But 70? Looking out of your window seat, you can just begin to discern a dim glow on the horizon ahead. It's not the rising sun. It's the landing lights at your destination. You've started your descent. It could be a bumpy one."
Still he insisted his gloomy mood was only temporary. He revealed he was considering borrowing a trick from Sir Trevor Nunn, who began counting his age backwards after turning 70. So, Richard joked he was now celebrating his "69th" birthday instead.
He then turned his attention from ageing to the baffling unreliability of the human brain. His frustration centred on a familiar everyday mystery, saying: "Why we can't find things that are staring us in the face? Such as missing car keys. Fine, we shouldn't have left them in the fruit bowl. But there they are, on top of the bananas, not hidden underneath. So why can't we see them?"
The TV personality continued and said the same problem apparently does not occur "when spotting familiar faces in unusual surroundings". It was further proof that the supposedly brilliant human brain can occasionally be anything but.
