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He had kept very quiet about his extraordinary rescue operation – bringing children on trains from Prague to Britain on the brink of the Second World War – for almost 50 years, not even discussing it with his beloved wife until they found the scrapbook while decluttering their loft.
Turning the pages of the album, seeing photographs of the children Nicky (as I came to call him) had saved and their names – including, alas, the children who didn’t survive because they had been taken off the last train when war was declared in 1939 – was incredibly poignant.
Our first step was to ring Nicky himself, but when I congratulated him on his extraordinary achievement, he just said, bleakly, "Not enough."
It has been estimated that now 6,000 people owe their very existence to Nicholas Winton. The Jewish children Nicky rescued were almost the only ones in Czechoslovakia to survive the Holocaust.
It was almost unbearably moving as they turned to him to thank him for their lives. That was the only time in my career when I had to stop recording to wipe away my tears. Afterwards, we were contacted by dozens of viewers who realised for the first time who had saved them from certain death.
The first episode aired 36 years ago this month, and these moments have been seen millions of times since online. I've watched them many times myself, and each time find myself deeply moved. So many of those children grew up to achieve so much. Their courage, and the courage of their parents in sending them away to an unknown future, is extraordinary.
He and I stayed in touch, having lunch regularly. He always said he wished humanity would learn the lessons of history. As true today as ever.
On his 90th birthday – he died aged 106 in 2015 – he told me he'd made a resolution never to turn down an invitation to try something new. So when he turned 100, one of "Winton's Grandchildren" – the pilot daughter of a boy he had saved – took Nicky up in her microlite. He said the wind was very draughty up his trouser legs.
Looking back, I can’t remember being affected by anti-Semitism during my career. Although I do remember in the 1980s attending a charity event, and being given a lift by a member of the House of Lords and his wife in their stretch limo.
Although I owe a great deal to my Jewish background, I’m an agnostic now and I envy those with faith. However, it does worry me that when a Jewish word is used on the BBC it's often mispronounced.
Everything changes, and the broadcasting landscape has changed immensely since I started out in the industry. My earliest appearance on TV was in a debate on whether women can read the news. I was for it. Where would the news be today without the brilliant women newsreaders?
If she’s over 60 and presents a show, which is rare enough, what woman on TV these days is allowed to look her age? Only Professor Dame Mary Beard?
Some kind person enlarged my eyes, shrank my teeth, smoothed my skin; you name it, they’d improved it. Unfortunately, years later, when I was giving a Ted Talk and put that picture on the screen, it was greeted with hoots of laughter. So rude!
Today, the expectation to look a certain way – tall, skinny, streaky blonde – is improving. The fact that Alison Hammond is flavour of the month proves that talent and personality can prevail. And Claudia Winkleman's fringe does its bit for emancipation, too.
Being a controller would mean delegating that to other people – commissioning programmes, but not making them. And, of course, I was working very hard for Childline, too, which I might have had to give up.
In the end I chose thanks, but no thanks. Since then I have sometimes felt like an awful wimp. But in the next series of That’s Life! we investigated a boarding school owned by a paedophile who employed paedophile staff, and because of our report the teachers were arrested, convicted and sent to prison and the school was closed down. So good did come out of my wimpiness.
As one of the few wives and mothers who were also producers, I often found myself dealing with subjects involving children. But there’s still much to be done.
There is an epidemic of eating disorders, of self-harm, of mental health issues afflicting our young people. Why are British children so much more unhappy, less healthy, than children in other countries? For the sake of our future, things need to change.
If That’s Life! were on the air at the moment, our viewers would demand that we campaign on their children’s behalf.
It's much harder to have the same influence when audiences are fragmented and so much smaller, although the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office shows it can still be done.
The revealing Channel 4 series To Catch a Copper, in which the brave chief constable in Avon and Somerset has given a film crew access to the unit that investigates possible police misconduct, is another series that I hope creates change.
We viewers need it desperately, but I'm not confident about the BBC's future. How do we fund the BBC going forward, to ensure it's available to everyone, and free of government interference? And stays confident enough to fend off the attacks by competitors in the media who are jealous of its place in the public’s hearts and minds? Those are vital questions.
The law at the moment just doesn’t work. Anyone supporting change should please, please, write to their MP. I've signed up to Dignitas – and going to Zurich is still an option I’m considering if my life gets unendurable.
People often ask people like me who are staggering towards the finishing post how, and if, I would like to be remembered? My answer is, with love and laughter, that would be wonderful.
And to the follow-up question, is there anything I'm proud of? That's more difficult, because in everything I've done and worked for, I've had an amazing team to support and inspire me, so I really can’t claim the credit. But I admit I am very proud of my scrambled eggs.
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