ON THE eve of his new TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Jennie Dennett talks to the Kendal-born historian Dr David Starkey about his eagerness to flee the town, and adolescent fumblings at Kendal Grammar School.

THERE is no doubt that dialling up Dr David Starkey is an intimidating business.

As a panellist on BBC Radio Four's The Moral Maze, the right-wing rebel has a reputation for lancing his opponent's arguments with a fearsome combination of intellect, sneering arrogance and breath-taking rudeness.

But when not being called on to perform in the moral fighting ring, Dr Starkey is a gentler talker, equipped with an articulateness that has made him both an admired historian and the archetypal media don.

From his humble beginnings in a council house at Broad Ings, this bookish, only child has produced a series of bankable history hits, last culminating in his Channel Four series Elizabeth.

The Starkey treatment of the Tudor queen even attracted more viewers than top-rating comedy shows Ali G and Friends.

Yet, until recently, there had been little love lost between the scholar and his home town.

Kendal, as it was then, proved uninviting for the working-class family.

"It was a very socially stratified town.

I still remember Booth's grocers; it was split in two - there was one side for the plebs and there was the other where you sat down and gave your order to a man in a black suit."

Starkey was categorised as a pleb, although this never stopped his meteoric rise at school.

However, since this hasty departure, absence has made his heart grow slightly fonder and his opinion of the town of his birth has, he says, "risen enormously".

Characteristic disdain, though, is still in reserve for the town planners who "criminally" destroyed the yards south of Highgate.

Dr Starkey's next foray in popular history is his series The Six Wives of Henry VIII which starts on Channel 4 on Monday.

In the line-up will, of course, be Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of the bumptious king, whose family was closely linked to Kendal Castle.

So, can Starkey settle the questions on the lips of Kendalians everywhere - did Henry VIII ever make it to Kendal Castle, and was Katherine Parr born there?

"No," is the body blow from the doctor.

Kendal will just have to make do with its very own celebrity historian instead.

Perhaps the Starkey Moral Maze catchphrase "Forgive me" is the bumper sticker we all need as we speed past in the fast lane with success on our minds.