MUMS in the maternity unit at Wycombe Hospital got a double surprise on Friday.

First, local celeb Fern Britton, TV cook and presenter, arrived with husband Phil Vickery and her youngest child, to hand over a new piece of equipment for the babies.

And then who should pop out from behind a corner but Michael Aspel to tell a flabbergasted Fern that she was of to be the heroine of television's This is Your Life.

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 Midweek 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.

Fern's children were born at Wycombe Hospital and she is a long-standing friend of the hospital. The equipment presented, a foetal heart monitor, is used during labour to check baby's heart rate and look for signs of distress.

This Is Your Life is on BBC1 on Fridays at 7pm but thedate when Fern's life will be revealed is a TV secret.