He ended up at West Greenwich Secondary Modern where he was brilliant at everything - I loved

He ended up at West Greenwich Secondary Modern where he was brilliant at everything - "I loved my reports, which always started with Position In Year: First" - but left at 15. He says that if he'd stayed on they'd have eventually found him work in a bank, which wouldn't have been for him.And, anyway, by this time he'd already "caught the whiff of rock 'n' roll". He worked in a West End record shop then co-founded Sniffin' Glue, a cleverly post-modern punk magazine. The next stop was NME, which he describes as absolutely the best period of his life. "It was a delicious time," he sighs nostalgically.Originally employed to answer the phones, he quickly graduated to writing witty picture captions then flying all over the world to interview pop stars. His interview with Michael Jackson - who was desperate to discuss Benny Hill - went straight into the legend books.

Danny became the funniest, most popular writer they ever had, even though he had a blase attitude to deadlines - he would often be writing up his pieces at the printers - and frequently couldn't be bothered to transcribe his tapes. Once, he interviewed Paul Weller, couldn't be bothered to listen to the tape, couldn't remember anything that was said, so just put down whatever he fancied. Later, he bumped into Paul, who cried: "I don't remember discussing any of those subjects." "Well, Paul," said Danny. "I'm sure we'd have got round to them given more time." He then says that he is first and foremost a writer Probably "I do writing best, although I've got little proof of it. I got sidetracked into selling soap powder."The telly stuff started with The Six O'Clock Show - a programme best described as sort of trouser-dropping, red-nosed Picture Post - then continued through some terrible panelly things until radio discovered him.

He launched Six O Six, the Radio 5 football programme that had him named Radio Personality of The Year but is now presented by David Mellor No, he's not going to be rude about David Mellor. "Oh please, just give me a stick to beat a cripple," he cries.So what now for Danny Baker? Good things, I hope, although, yes, I am worried about the company he keeps these days. Indeed, whenever I think of Danny and Chris and Gazza on the 48-hour bender which Danny only actually saw a few hours of, I think of an old Frank Crumit song, the one with the chorus that goes: "You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses and then the pig got up and slowly walked away." Thus far, Danny's done the walking away But for how much longer?. Given one wish, most parents would plump for their children never to know pain and suffering Yet two British mothers could not wish for anything less. Three-year-old Hannah Thompson and two-year-old Haaris Kureshi appeared to be completely normal children when they were born.

But both suffer from an extremely rare genetic disorder, of which there are just 30 reported cases in the world: the inability to feel pain. No matter how badly they injure themselves, no message gets through to the brain to alert them to the danger they are in. So they mutilate themselves unaware of the harm they are doing. Hannah has bitten the tips off her fingers, bitten the tip off her tongue and last year bit off her thumb, all the while never shedding a tear.Hannah's family could not bear to watch her destroy her body and decided to have all her teeth removed: "It was a very hard decision to make," says Charlotte Thompson, her mother "She had lovely teeth, perfectly healthy teeth... but she was spending two out of four weeks in hospital after biting herself. The way I looked at it was once her fingers and tongue went that was it, they were gone. At least she's going to get another set of teeth when she's older."Congenital indifference to pain is part of a group of conditions known as hereditary sensory neuropathies and was first reported in 1932, with the case of a man known as The Human Pin-cushion, who toured music-halls sticking pins into himself.

The condition is thought to be caused by the failure of betaendorphin - a substance that occurs naturally in the body and modulates pain sensations - to register pain It is incurable. Similar experiences are found in older diabetes sufferers or leprosy victims."Pain is probably one of the most important sensations that we have, because without it we would damage ourselves irrevocably," says Stephen Green, consultant paediatrician at St Luke's Bradford, who treats Haaris. "It is essential for the survival of the species."Children who suffer from the condition can easily be mistaken for victims of abuse. "I found myself trying to justify myself all the time and I couldn't," says Nusrath Kureshi, Haaris's mother "I just felt so helpless. I thought, what can I say to them that will make them think that it wasn't me or somebody else?"As well as the risk of external injuries there is the danger that the sufferer will not register warning pain in cases such as appendicitis and peritonitis. Extra wear and tear on the joints means that arthritis is a common problem and many children are in wheelchairs by their teens.There are also psychological difficulties for sufferers and their parents "How do you discipline children like this?" asks Dr Green. "Many parents still administer a smack across the knuckles if their child goes near something dangerous but it doesn't work on these children And they may develop behavioural difficulties.