Remember the old television programme What’s My Line?

Editor Peter Barron was asked if he was a psychiatrist – and then a farmer – after miming his job to schoolchildren…

Peter, who is editor of The Northern Echo, found himself at the centre of a special version of What’s My Line at a local primary school in Darlington.

He lined up alongside a nursery nurse, a tax office worker, and an estate agent at Whinfield Infants School and had to mime his job.

Peter held an imaginary notebook in his hand and made notes with aninvisible pen as he mouthed a make-believe interview.

A little lad’s hand shot up in the front row: “Are you a psychiatrist?”he asked.

Peter was forced to admit that he sometimes felt in need of one but wasmost certainly not a psychiatrist.

The “interview” continued. Another hand was raised, this time belongingto a little girl: “A farmer!”

Peter, impeccably dressed in a suit, was left feeling more puzzled thanusual.

It turned out that the little girl interpreted his scribbling as the actionof sowing seeds in a field.

“I never was any good at charades,” admitted Peter.

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