 Paddy Shennan meets John Peel's former right-hand man and woman. THEY couldn't really call it work, but it was an education - and an extremely entertaining one. For the last three years, Louise Kattenhorn was the producer of the John Peel Show and, for the last two, Hermeet Chadha was the programme assistant. We met at Radio 1 HQ in Great Portland Street, London - in G12, the cluttered, open plan office shared by the station's specialist DJs and production teams. It's the room where John, Louise and Hermeet would put his Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night (11pm-1am) shows together - and a room which is now keenly feeling his absence. We then went to a basement bar and restaurant - Needles - around the corner; the place where John, accompanied by Louise and Hermeet, would take journalists who wanted to interview him. But now it was their turn and the likeable colleagues, whose combined age is still eight years shy of John's, were delighted to take the opportunity to explain how the great man enriched their lives. "I spoke to John every day of the week, even weekends when he was at home," says Londoner Louise, 31, whose sister, Lucy, is studying English at the University of Liverpool. "That was largely because, in the early days of working together, I'd get calls on Monday from a slightly petulant-sounding John asking 'Why didn't you call me at the weekend?' "John was a really sociable man. He didn't like to be on his own and he'd always say to us 'Come on, let's go and have a glass of red wine and talk b******s.' "He was like a weird hybrid of uncle, dad and friend." Hermeet, 26, who comes from Cumbernauld in Scotland, adds: "I saw him as an uncle figure --someone who you knew you were always safe with." | 
