If you could edit your past, what would you change?

I wouldn’t have done the naked centrefold in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1972.

The death of my wife: I’d happily have gone first.

I would definitely change the way one or two relationships ended.

The years between 13 and 17, which I think are very formative, and the rather arid public school upbringing I had at Harrow.

All the hanging about.

To have grown up with my siblings. They were at least 10 years older than me.

Not applying myself enough at school.

Nothing, really, because it was all interesting.

I would have come out earlier.

I sometimes wish I had had the courage to be a politician – but I made the decision to be a human rights defender instead. I realised I cannot be both at the same time, because they may be incompatible.

My surname. You have no idea how many versions I’ve read and heard. It was especially irritating during my Abba years. You can imagine someone calling our hotel and saying: “I’d like to speak to one of the guys in Abba.” Who do you think the receptionist called, Andersson or Ulvaeus?

Not getting older at each birthday, but I appreciate it beats the alternative.

Nothing: the good times, the bad times, they make your character.

Maybe I should have agreed to take the job of controller of BBC One when Bill Cotton offered it to me. I do feel a wimp; I would have been the first woman in the job.What do you consider your greatest achievement? I don’t really claim credit, I hope, for helping to launch Childline and the Silver Line and Silver Stories. It is an achievement that they all exist, but that is down to their amazing teams.

I would not leave my teenage children to follow an unworthy love. It lasted a month and scarred the family for ever.

That Sparks predates the Beatles and it’s kind of all too obvious where they got a lot of their inspiration.

My penchant for having just one too many.

I’d have stuck with the original Dexys Midnight Runners look we started in 1978, which became known as the New Romantic look a couple of years later. Our management and record label talked us out of it. Later, Duran Duran and Spandau came out with that look and that made us look old-fashioned.

Nothing at all.