Guy Henry hosts our Friday afternoon programme from 2.00 pm on our Boom Light station. The rest of his life sees him popping up on stage, film and TV - but also driving a bus!

Guy writes:

"As a child, I loved my beautiful Hornby train set.  Vehicles of all sorts held real appeal to me – particularly large ones with pneumatic tyres. I was the nerdy boy on the school bus sitting behind the driver but wishing I was doing the driving.

As a special treat on Friday nights, whilst my mom was in Kelsall's Supermarket in Highcliffe-on-Sea in Dorset doing the shopping for the weekend, my dad would take me around the local housing estates in his car. As a great motor buff too, he would let me lean over and take the steering wheel while he held the rest of the controls.

Foolishly, one day he also let me drive his big Jaguar down the driveway and into the garage which had our new kitchen extension at the end. Unfortunately, aged about nine, my little feet didn't distinguish very well between the accelerator and the brake pedal.

I pressed firmly on what I thought was the brake. It was the accelerator - and I bumped through the new breeze block wall from the garage and into the kitchen where my mother, peeling Brussels sprouts at the time, was very surprised to see me. Fortunately, I found the proper brake pedal in time. It’s not good to squash one’s own mother with a Jaguar.

My dad had a friend who was a Dorset dairy farmer, leading me to think one day that might be my profession. I loved the animals, of course, but chiefly I just adored the tractors which I was allowed to drive all around the fields and use to take the milking churns down to the front gate.

My own first car was a Triumph Dolomite Sprint - its black roof topping a shiny yellow body - very snazzy in 1977. Alas, the car itself had a very rusty floor and one could easily have fallen through it and ended up sitting on the road.

My first more serviceable car, which I kept and loved for several years, was a bronze Humber Sceptre - COP 44 C. You never forget these things.

I chose to pursue another career in due course – furthering my love of acting. And it was a part in Holby City which gave me enough of a regular wage to treat myself to a beautiful deep blue Jaguar XF.

In acting, the plots often require you to drive an array of vehicles. One I remember particularly was a tiny three-wheeler laundry truck in which I escaped from Colditz - a sort of WWII Reliant Robin. I was cast as an artist called Sawyer opposite Tom Hardy and Damian Lewis in that big ITV series a few years back.

Also with a wartime theme, in Channel 4's Sword of Honour in the year 2000, I got to drive Daniel Craig around in a big army lorry. We had great fun driving around Majorca on location. Daniel's a bit more giggly than his taciturn James Bond image would suggest. I remember I had to stop this big lorry on a particular mark on a Majorcan hillside so that the camera could get the proper shot of us through the window.

On achieving the feat at first attempt, the director of photography rose from behind the camera to congratulate me: “Well done!”. “Police driving, sir?”, misattributing my driving prowess.

Driving is such a joy. You can escape from a lot of the trouble of home or work and relax. Equally, you can solve the woes of the world with a serious conversation with your partner or your friend because conversations somehow are often easier when you're in a car and both just gently talking away and staring out of the windows.

Your first loves never go away. My acting career was faring decently, but I still harboured a love for driving coaches. At the age of 51, whilst filming Holby City, I took time out to take my PCV (Passenger Carrying Vehicle Test). Even though I nearly went the wrong way round the M 25 on my driving test, I did pass it.

The licence permitted me, at last, to be the driver I’d dreamed of being as a child, transporting people to their destination.  In practical terms, it’s flexible work which can dovetail beautifully with my acting career.

I’m delighted, however, that after a quiet spell, lots of nice acting work is coming my way now again, so I may not be behind the wheel quite as much in the months ahead.  And of course, I have my Friday programme on Boom Light to focus on too – which fulfils another itch I’ve longed to scratch.

My lives do collide. When behind the wheel of a bus or coach, passengers sometimes are puzzled to recognise me. As the leading surgeon in the BBC's Holby City, I always say: “Don't worry. I was never a qualified surgeon, but I have passed my bus test. Now, sit down and enjoy the journey.”

One of the buses I drive has the face of my friend Hugh Bonneville splashed across the side – so it’s good to drive him around."

Guy

Hear Guy Henry on Boom Light on Friday at 2.00pm