We've loved your previous Christmas specials, what can we expect this time?

The spirit of Christmas is exactly what was around that table. Love, care, empathy, understanding and joy. It’s a joyous Christmas special with the essence of Christmas and what it’s all about for friends and family. It’s about joy, love and care, that’s what you can expect.

If you could only pick one special Christmas food or drink item to have, what would it be and why?

I’ve got my sister staying with me so a large bottle of cognac. It was an old tradition of my father’s, he’d always get a really nice bottle of cognac and then pay it off for the rest of the year. My dad loved that, he would have his café crèmes and a bottle of cognac. It’s always about remembering those traditions.

If we were popping round to your house for Christmas, what festive fare would you rustle up for us?

It’s a different one this year, we’re all going out on Christmas Eve, the whole family. There is 14 of us, we’re all going out to a restaurant in Newcastle for Christmas lunch so that’s a massive break in tradition. On Christmas Day you can expect the hams, cut and come again cakes, there’s never a shortage of food and it’s always eclectic and international. We’ll be barbecuing inevitably, there will be whole fish, seafood, Those are the things we enjoy as a family together. All my sons are great cooks and two of them are chefs so we all chip in. We might go down to Cantina in Newcastle which is my son James’ restaurant in Newcastle, he does vegan tacos.

What ingredients – can be food or otherwise – make Christmas magical for you?

Reminiscing, family and seeing people you haven’t seen in ages. It’s time, that’s the special thing and you want to spend it with people we love. Time, love, family, and a little bit of nostalgia, those are the ingredients for me.

What are your earliest Christmas foodie memories?

The turkey dip and stotties, we still do it if we’re all together. My mam Stella, who died a few years ago now, she used to have this amazing way of cooking the turkey overnight. It was so beautiful because it was slow cooked. She would always make stotties but they used to be slightly more chewy with big holes in them and all the cooking juice from the turkey, mam would sperate the turkey fat off and keep the juices. She would put the fat in the frying pan and add a ladle full of the cooking juices. You would all stand in a queue in your pyjamas on Christmas morning before you’ve opened your presents dipping your stottie cake in turkey juices, the best thing in the world.

What are your favourite Christmas traditions?

All piling in the car, going for a pint, and then a walk on Boxing Day. The Christmas Eve supper is always good when everyone comes back and sometimes I’ll go to Midnight Mass. Putting the presents out for the kids, I hate wrapping them, but I love putting them out.

What would be the perfect present you would choose for Dave?

He’s so hard to buy for. He loves truffles so truffles, a bottle of new oil and a great malt whiskey. Then another season ticket for Newcastle United because he’s really getting into watching them at the minute. I’d like him to go, if I could, on the transatlantic Royal Yacht Britannia him and Lil, just have it to themselves.

Do you ever sing Christmas carols/songs while preparing festive fayre, if so what's the best one to inspire good Christmas cooking?

It depends on the mood, normally there’s some soul and Stevie Wonder pops up every now and then. We all have a laugh with Gloria. While shepherds wash their socks at night but we’ve got rude lyrics, that always goes down a treat. We love those classic, Victorian Christmas carols.

How important has it been to be back together for this Christmas special, and how great has it been to get back on the bikes together?

I genuinely don’t have any words, it was incredibly emotional because it’s what we do. It was the return for Dave and for me to normal a little bit and that was very precious when things haven’t been for Dave particularly so by default haven’t been for me either. It was lush to see Dave in my rear-view mirror riding saying ‘are you sure we’re not turning left here’.

Why was it so important for you both to throw a Christmas banquet for those who have helped you over the last 18 months?

To say thank you, we tend in the modern world not to say thank you because for some mad reason we all seem too busy to do so and a simple thank you and a celebration of those people is what we should do, so we did. It was a programme that took a lot of courage, particularly for Dave, and he’s a very courageous man and I’m very privileged to have him as my friend.