It's difficult to remember a time when Alan was not a household name.

If he didn't say it about a country in his legendary series Whicker's World, then it wasn't worth knowing.

These days he is seen less on the small screen, but nonetheless he's still going strong.

A recent series, Whicker's War, was a success and he is a prolific writer, broadcaster and photographer.

He made his way to the Isle of Man entirely by accident last week.

'I had a series out recently and in the course of some of the interviews before it I think somebody asked me about my first holiday and where I went,' he explained in his trademark drawl.

'I said I thought it was when I was about six when I came to the Isle of Man with my mother.

'The clever Department of Tourism picked up on this and said why don't I come over. I'm going to write a piece about it for the Daily Mail.'

Alan and his wife Valerie, who accompanies him on his worldly travels, arrived in the Island on Wednesday for a three-day visit. It was a brief tour of the Island but it was enough time for Alan, a Jersey resident, to get a feel for the atmosphere.

'I'm comparing it all the time with Jersey,' he said. 'Jersey and the Isle of Man have always been seen as competitors. They have been after the same financial business but the Isle of Man has always been tagging behind Jersey.

'I find the Isle of Man is very enterprising really, it seems to have good luck or good sense and it also doesn't have the folie de grandeur that Jersey has, which is evident when it builds a huge airport and spends a fortune on everything in sight. Our airport seems now like a haunted ballroom.'

'It seems to me that the Isle of Man is a bit more careful. It's very instinctive to compare the two.'

Alan visited Castletown and other parts of the south on his final day in the Island. He was especially interested in Castletown as it featured heavily as Jersey in the ITV production Island At War.

He was impressed with the town, even comparing its winding cobbled streets with Venice.

Valerie too enjoyed her stay in the Island and was impressed with the variety of landscape.

'You have vast expanses here, great vistas and spaces,' she commented.