Jonathan Ross meets Resusci Anne

BBC One's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross had a non-celebrity guest on the show this week (16 October), in the form of St John Ambulance's Resusci Anne, who helped him get across the importance of knowing life saving skills.

An idea for the show

During his TV show on Friday 9 October Jonathan Ross said he was looking around for SJA  first aiders after JLS boyband member, JB, did a dance move which resembled a person taken ill.

St John Ambulance staff spotted the mention and emailed the show with some suggestions of how Jonathan could help his audience learn life saving skills, which resulted in a short sequence at the start of the show where he gave chest compressions to a dummy, as part of CPR .

Learning first aid through music

Research has shown that songs such as Nellie the Elephant and the Bee Gees' classic, Staying Alive, can help people keep the right time needed for effective chest compressions, with rhythms of roughly 100 beats per minute.

Jonathan helped the audience learn the chest compression technique by suggesting different tracks that will help them remember the correct rhythm.

TV shows make a difference

Clive James, Training Development Manager at St John Ambulance, said: 'TV shows that demonstrate first aid are proven to make a difference. Earlier this year, a mother was able to save her daughter's life after she fell in a pond, because she'd watched a segment on CPR with St John Ambulance on ITV1's This Morning.

'However there is no subsitute for formal training and we urge everyone to book onto a course today.'

Learn CPR properly through our first aid advice pages.