AS A youngster, I looked forward to episodes of How 2, presented by Fred Dinenage, Gaz Top and Carol Vorderman, giving us hints and tips on how to live a better life.

Vorderman’s advice on how to change a duvet cover – by turning it inside out and then pinching the corners before throwing the whole thing together – has still proven to be useful today.

Nowadays, there’s money to be made from these helpful tips, which have been rebranded as ‘life hacks’. Magazines pay £20-50 for readers to send in their own tips.

They are almost always hilarious. Such examples in the past have included: a chandelier made of old earrings, a door curtain made of video tape, a solution for those who can't afford sat nav - post-it notes with directions stuck on the steering wheel, slippers made of sanitary towels, and an invaluable tip on how to make toast while in a hotel room - use the supplied travel iron.

The people who send these wacky tips into magazines are obviously proud of their achievements, they fail to realise how ridiculous they look. Although I am tempted to try out the iron-as-a-toaster idea. That seems like a winner.

But none of them have ever been better than Vorderman’s little trick.

How 2’s brilliance lay in its simplicity. It did not complicate things. It sought to educate viewers on how things were made, and how to do things yourself at home. Almost a throw-back to the make-do and mend movement during World War Two, people are always interested in these things.

There was something comforting and warm about its presentation which made it a must-watch.

So I was understandably delighted to stumble upon the next best thing while trawling through the hundreds of TV channels we have at our disposal.

The programme is called How It’s Made. It’s an American production, which started in 1999 and is still going today. To date, 312 episodes have been made.

The show consists of three items, with a segment on how they are made, with a suitably-twee soundtrack in the background and a narrator with a Manchester accent – it is redubbed for the UK market – who makes his fair share of witty quips. His voice has a near-hypnotic tone. You literally cannot stop watching.

I was hooked by an episode that detailed how a surfboard is made. I have never surfed, nor am I likely to. I doubt therefore that I will ever need a surfboard. But now I know how one is made. The same goes for a pick axe. Never going to need one, never going to use one, but I know how to throw one together.

The 312 episodes have covered the production of snowboards, acrylic bathtubs, pipe organs, particleboard office furniture, hydroponic lettuce, clothes dryers, false teeth, fish farming, ball bearings, hard candles, prepared mustard, ballet slippers, accordions, flutes, golf balls, bagpipes, trombones, bagels, jelly beans, frozen pizzas, fur coats (but no knickers, yet), bacon, darts, stetson hats, waffles, kelp caviar and dog sleds. And much, much more.

There are three segments per show. By the time I've finished watching the lot of them, I'll have learned how 936 things are made.

I’ll also be a very, very old man.