In my second year reading economics at Cambridge, I lived in a house on Adams Road that was once the home of Nicholas Kaldor, the famous economist. It was pretty amazing: I was learning about him at lectures, then going back to the rooms he’d lived in 50 years earlier.

Adams Road is a whole street of student houses with huge back gardens that are linked to Robinson College, where I was studying. You could go through your back garden to get to college - which was great, especially if you were late in the mornings. We had a huge living room with a balcony, which was a real luxury.

They really are stunning houses – enormous, with 10 bedrooms or so, as well as all the original panelled doors and moulded ceilings, long driveways and large gardens. They are not at all like your average student terraced house – from the outside, anyway. In their heyday, they would have been gorgeous. Because so many Adams Road residents are students, when I was there, it was really social, with people popping into everyone else’s houses all the time. It was great fun. Rob Webb, from Mitchell & Webb, the Peep Show duo, was in the year above me and lived at No 5, which was known as a very cool house.

We never had parties where I was living, but all the other houses on the street did. There was one nightclub in Cambridge, Fifth Avenue, and it was so naff, we only went there for a laugh once in a while. Instead, the various colleges put on party nights called bops. There was a good one that I used to go to called Kings Mingle at King’s College, which had a really cool DJ, Graeme Park. After the Bop had ended, the people who lived at No 5 convinced him to come and DJ at their house. With their high ceilings and big bedrooms, those houses are made for parties.

If you went out in town, you would bump into so many people you knew. There was only one main supermarket, so you were bound to meet at least one of your friends there. And you could do things spontaneously – unlike in a big, sprawling city such as London, where you have to make arrangements well in advance.

It hadn’t been a particularly great ambition of mine to go to Cambridge, but my sister was already there. I stayed with her and loved the place. I only got in because my teacher changed my predicted grades. They’d said that I’d only get a C in Chemistry, but I said, “No, I’m good at cramming, honestly.” My teacher, who was the wife of John Sergeant, the former ITN political editor, agreed to improve my predictions – she really saved me.

Lots of people think of Cambridge as being snooty, but there was a huge variety of people studying at the university when I was there. It is also steeped in history – sometimes, when you walk along by the river or through some of the streets, it’s like living in times gone by. You can go punting at the weekends, which sounds so posh, but it’s just something that you do at Cambridge – it’s still amazing, though, when I think that my parents are first-generation immigrants from Bangladesh.

I had experience of working in television before I went to Cambridge – I started my career at 16. While I was at university, I co-presented a programme for GMTV. We had eight-week terms, so I managed to record it during the holidays. But I certainly wasn’t famous – the programme went out at six o’clock on a Saturday morning or something ridiculous like that.

Blue Peter was great, but a career in television doesn’t last for ever, and I know that. People think you’re doing really well because you’re on the telly, but it’s not a job for life – and I don’t think I would want it to be.

I have invested in property – I’ve got two houses in west London and I am keen to buy more. I like the idea of buying things and doing them up, but the market’s not that great at the moment, so I’m waiting before I decide what to do next.

I did some filming in Cambridge a couple of years ago and visited my old room. It was weird – you’re there for three years, and you know everyone and everyone knows you. You feel like you own the place. Then you leave and a whole new group of people suddenly has more of a claim to it than you do. You don’t even have a card for the library any more. Suddenly, there’s a new in-crowd and a new generation of people who feel that they own the place – and why shouldn’t they?

Konnie Huq presents the Red Bull Air Race 2008 on Channel 4 on Saturdays at 1pm. The London leg will be screened live next Sunday

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