'When I was seven I wanted to be'

By Sarah Bell
BBC News

Children as young as seven are to be offered careers guidance under a government scheme in England. We asked some of the UK's famous names what they wanted to be when they were small children.

VINCE CABLE - LIB DEM TREASURY SPOKESMAN

Mr Cable was a chief economist for Shell before becoming an MP

"I saw myself as a big game warden in Africa. I was very excited by all the films and pictures of big animals as a child.

I wanted to travel the world and go to exciting places like that for adventures.

"I don't think I knew what an economist was, then."

WILL YOUNG - SINGER

Will Young has had four number ones during his career

"I wanted to be a singer. Always wanted to be a singer.

"Or a vet. Wasn't about the money, it was a passion. I love singing and I love animals.

"I'd still do it now. Maybe the new David Attenborough."

ANDY McNAB - WRITER, FORMER MEMBER OF SAS

Former SAS man Andy McNab refuses to be identified in photographs

"I wanted to work on the docks in London, which is what everyone on the estate did, or be a Tube or bus driver, which was a good job. I also wanted to become a panel beater but I didn't know what it meant really, but they seemed to earn a lot.

"Everything revolved around the estate, what dads did, if they had a car, all the normal things like if their kids had Levi jeans, it meant they were rich, so you wanted to do what they did."

SIAN WILLIAMS - BBC NEWS PRESENTER

Sian Williams began her journalistic career with BBC Radio Merseyside

"I wanted to be a ballet dancer. It was unusual for me, because I wasn't a particularly girly girl. But it turned out I wasn't good enough for the classes and I left after quite a short time, and that was the end of my ballet career.

"If the seven-year-old me saw what I was doing now, she would be gobsmacked. In school plays I was never Mary, I was always an angel, never at the front of the stage. I didn't have enormous amounts of confidence."

PAUL COLLINGWOOD - ENGLAND CRICKETER

Collingwood is England's captain in Twenty20 internationals

"My answer is quite boring. I wanted to be a cricketer, it was my life from a very young age, around three. That, or a PE teacher. I always thought they had a great job.

"I'm glad I didn't take advice from my careers adviser. They told me to get my head round the fact I had no chance of becoming a cricketer and stick to my academic work."

EDWINA CURRIE - CONSERVATIVE MP AND NOVELIST

Edwina Currie was an MP from 1983 until 1997

"I wanted to be a writer. I tried to write my first novel when I was eight. It was about a horse. I'd just read a wonderful story called "My Friend Flicka" and I thought I could write a sequel.

"I got about a page in when I realised that I didn't know anything about horses, and I didn't know anything about the far West where it was set.

"I've now written 10 books, six of them novels, so I've done it."