Gay Byrne was known to friends as "Gaybo".
I was once chatting to him and others in a club near Granada TV in Manchester.
At one point, I asked him "Do you mind if I call you Gaybo?"
He replied, "Not at all."
Comedically inspired, I immediately turned my attention to the lady next to him.
"In that case . . ." I began.
Reading my mind, she gave me a look that would have stopped a charging rhino.
It was opera singer, Lesley Garrett.