As Ewan McGregor’s heroin-addicted character Renton is forced into cold turkey in Trainspotting, Dale Winton appears to him in a hallucination. It’s a nightmarish scene in which Winton invades Renton’s inner torment, playing “himself” as an irritatingly cheerful chat show host in a pink satin suit, his television patter ominously juxtaposed against visions of a dead baby, blood-curdling screams and a relentless dance beat.

That Winton agreed to appear in the film was both an indication of his refusal to take himself too seriously and a mark of how ubiquitous a figure he was in 1990s TV culture.

Presenting Supermarket Sweep, the daytime game show, dressed in a series of bedazzlingly coloured jackets and garish ties, Winton was as much a part of the