Rick Edwards: ‘KFC and snooker isn’t glamorous but it’s my favourite kind of night’

How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Rick Edwards

7am 

Saturday is a good day because I wake up in my own bed in London with my wife Emer [Kenny]. During the week I stay in Manchester to record my BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast show [with Rachel Burden] as I’m up at 4am every day. Our son, who is one, wakes us and one of us will go and scoop him up and bring him into our bed. I’m aware that talking about babies’ sleep is incredibly dull but it does preoccupy me a lot.

7.30am 

We don’t lie in for long – our days are very different now with a baby. I drink a herbal tea and get ready to go out. I’ve almost entirely given up on dressing smartly. Working an early morning shift has something to do with it. I can’t be bothered to do my hair in the morning, so I’ll usually wear a hat and some trackies. It’s quite liberating.

9.30am 

Breakfast out at our local café Bread by Bike. We’ve been going to the same café for years to meet our friend Tim. It has an extremely eccentric menu ranging from kids’ dippy eggs to chicken katsu curry, and it’s delicious. I’ve become fixated on how bad getting up so early in the week must be for my health, so I try to mitigate any negative impact. I stay off caffeine until later in the morning, because I don’t imagine too much caffeine pumping around your system is a good thing. I also try to fast for 14 hours. I’m a bit of a science geek so I’ve been researching the gut microbiome. Intermittent fasting and drinking kombucha is as far as I go though.

11am 

A walk on Hampstead Heath. I used to listen to Fighting Talk on 5 Live but now I present it so I don’t! I find listening to myself completely unbearable; still, it’s an absolute privilege to do my job. BBC Radio 5 Live turns 30 next week and I’m looking forward to having special guests on the breakfast show, including ex-presenter Jane Garvey.

12.30pm

It’s the boy’s big nap time. In theory, we should relax and have lunch but in reality, we collapse on the sofa or run around tidying up the toys. I’ve swapped long weekend lunches at the pub for batch-cooking baby food. I love cooking, it’s a soothing exercise as I usually find it hard to switch off. I also like to build football into my weekend. If there’s a Liverpool game, I’m watching it on TV or listening to the radio.

3pm 

My godson is absolutely obsessed with Kentish Town City Farm, so I’ll go there to meet him and his parents with my son. We’ll say hi to the pigs. My in-laws live nearby, so we’ll pop our heads in for cuddles with their first grandchild too. Both Emer [a former EastEnders actor turned TV screenwriter] and I work away a lot, so it feels special to be home and around close family.

5pm 

Home to feed the boy one of my freshly cooked hidden-vegetable sauces with pasta.

6.30pm 

Somehow I’ve secured both bath- and bedtime with my son and I love it. We have a bath together, which I cherish because he won’t want to do that for ever. Then I’ll read him one of my favourite children’s stories like Room on the Broom or Tabby McTat.

7.30pm 

We’re shattered so we flop on the sofa with a film, order a Tiffin Tin curry and have a beer. If I make it to 11pm I’m surprised. The only exception is if I go out with a friend on a Saturday. We’ll head to KFC on the Seven Sisters Road and then to the nearby snooker hall, Cousins. It’s a classic. Although I’m not very good. It’s not a glamorous evening but it’s my favourite kind of night.

As told to Louise Burke