IN AMERICA, broadcast journalist and former anchorman Ted Koppel is something of a national institution.

Having presented ABC’s Nightline for more than 26 years, on which he grilled politicians and provided penetrating analysis into the news, he is a household name, comparable to the UK’s Jeremy Paxman.

But what many don’t know about this all-American newscaster is that he hails from Nelson.

This surely makes him one of the town’s most successful exports.

“My parents were Jewish immigrants from Germany,” said Koppel.

“My father, Edwil, was on the Isle of Man. He’d gone there to start a factory and then the war broke out so he was interned as an enemy alien.

"They held him for a year until they had cleared him and made sure he wasn’t spotting for old Adolf.

"It was during this time that my mother Alice and I lived in Nelson.”

Koppel’s Lancashire upbringing didn’t last long and shortly before his first birthday, the family moved to London.

“My dad was still on the Isle of Man when my mother moved us to London, I think it was because she really knew nobody up in Nelson,” he said.

Koppel went on to attend boarding school in the Midlands, before leaving for America as a teenager.

“My memories of boarding school are pretty much loathing every minute of it as far as I can recall,” said Koppel.

“I ran away a few times but they caught you pretty fast. It was like jail break!

“Of course I also have very happy memories of England, I had a wonderful time.

"I loved sports when I was growing up and loved to play field hockey.

"I loved football too and was quite good at it. I have to confess I’m still a Manchester United fan.”

Despite having spent only a relatively small amount of his 69 years in the UK, Koppel is proud of his heritage.

“I’m proud to tell people I come from Lancashire,” he said.

“One day I’m going to come back and visit Nelson because I haven’t seen it since I was under one year old.

“I’d love to see what it’s like and I do plan to return one day to take a look, so if you see some furtive-looking American looking around don’t worry, it’s only Ted come to visit his roots.”

Koppel’s family left for America just before he turned 14 in 1953.

“I think the feeling, quite frankly, was that America was still the land of opportunity, there was still big things that a young man could do.

"It was primarily for me that we moved,” he said.

But Koppel would feel the tug of England for 10 years before he settled into life in the US.

“In study hall on literally my first day of school in America I raised my hand and asked: ‘Please sir does anyone here have a rubber?’” he recalled.

“Of course in US that’s a contraceptive, they call rubbers erasers, and so the class erupted, ‘Eddie wants a rubber! Get him a rubber!’ “I soon discovered there were lots of little differences in the language.

"My parents would tell me to ‘fetch the post’, but in America they say ‘get the mail’.

"My fellow students would do impressions of me. I was a source of great amusement to them, I provided endless entertainment.

"Of course nowadays British teenagers already know these things from watching American TV.

“I had a pretty broad English accent for some time,” added Koppel.

“I listen back to some of the early tapes I did at ABC when I was in my early 20s and I still had an English accent.

"It took a while to totally destroy my English accent and turn it into an American one.”

Now, however, Koppel very much considers himself American.

“I’ve lived her for 55 years, I graduated from an American University, married an American woman, and have 13 children, sons and daughters-in-law, and grandchildren who are all American.

"So I suppose I’m about as American as I can get. I’m sorry if I’m a disappointment to the lads and lasses in Lancashire but I’m afraid if they ran into me they’d say ‘He’s a Yank’.”

But Koppel confessed he does sometimes how his life would have turned out if he’d have stayed in the UK.

“My life I’m sure would have been very different if we hadn’t moved,” he said.

“It might have been better in some respects, worse in others.

"I can’t say in retrospect that it would have been a better thing to stay or to go but I do know that I’ve had a very full life over here and I’m very grateful to America and I’m very fond of this country, but I’m very fond of England too.”

Koppel left Nightline in 2005, but has no plans to retire just yet.

He is working as a contributing editor to the BBC World News America and for National Public Radio as a senior news analyst.

He is currently enjoying a rare period of time off, which he is spending with his wife Grace.

Although Koppel is American through and through, some of his Lancashire traits are still evident — namely a great sense of humour and a strong work ethic.

“I do work hard,” he said.

“At the moment I’m taking a short break and it’s the only real time my wife and I have had off together in 45 years of marriage.

“But I can’t wait to find out what the next stage of my career will hold.

"I love to work, I really do, and I’m not entirely happy unless I’m working.

“Although saying that, it’s not like I’m working in a textile mill or down the mines.

"That could easily have been my life in Lancashire, a life of honest labour.

"I’ve been cheating all these years, I’ve been a reporter.”