POPULAR TV celebrity Fern Britton will have her life story told to the nation tonight (Thursday) when she appears on This Is Your Life.

Mums in the maternity unit at Wycombe Hospital were surprised when Michael Aspel appeared with his red book as Fern gave a piece of equipment for the unit two weeks ago.

Fern, from Great Kingshill, arrived at the hospital with her husband, chef Phil Vickery, and her youngest child, to hand over a foetal heart monitor.

But while there, Fern, morning TV presenter, was flabbergasted when Michael Aspel popped out from behind a corner to tell her she was to be the heroine of the This is Your Life programme.

Television cameras filmed the opening part of the show in the maternity unit as Fern made the presentation and then she was whisked off to London to film the rest in the studio.

Fern was too gobsmacked to talk, and had to retire to a side room in the maternity unit to recover from the shock.

All she managed to say to a Star reporter was that getting her along to present the equipment had been a ruse.

"They tricked me and then said 'This is your Life'," she said.

This Is Your Life will be screened on BBC1 at 8.30pm.