The media can be a small world, especially when you’ve been around long enough

Gosh, the stories I could tell about John Humphrys

It doesn’t happen very often, but when you’ve been kicking around for a while you sometimes have to write about people you know. Or are in danger of doing so. It’s a penalty of simply having been kicking around for so long that you once had supper with Harold Wilson.

Some are sad assignments, such as obituaries or remembrances, such as the one I sketched about the late Paddy Ashdown, who I knew a little about a thousand years ago.

Others are happier. For example, I recently almost talked myself into a piece about John Humphrys, when the news broke that he was on his “lap of honour” on the Today programme. Gosh, the stories I could tell about the old boy.

I worked with him for some years on the BBC1’s Sunday political show On the Record, where he was the presenter and interviewer and I was one of the researchers (Martha Kearney and Nick Robinson were also on the team, as it happens). I always liked John, and enjoyed his approach to journalism, which was much more with a snout for a newsline than treating a long political interview like it was a huge and overcomplicated logical game, which we often did. This would be where we attempted to force the politician through various branches on a huge “decision tree” until he or she eventually collapsed and confessed to their perfidy, driven to despair by the relentless scientific force of the choices and consequences confronting them.

It didn’t always work, and it wasn’t really John’s style, though it had been a bit of an orthodoxy when the BBC was under the control of director general John (late Lord) Birt. “Birtism” they called it, a teleological approach to telly that never quite caught on.

So I am happy to share those reflections, but, I confess, would feel uncomfortable about writing about private (though inconsequential) conversations. None of if it, I hasten to add, is scandalous or anything. But I just feel a bit shy about it, and of overstating my acquaintance with Mr Humphrys, which is slight.

For what it’s worth, purely as a long-term listener to the show, I thought he used to pursue eccentric lines of questioning sometimes, and occasionally got mixed up a bit, like we all do, as when he confused rabbits and squirrels (only one can climb trees).

On the other hand, the other presenters have their flaws too. Even the titanic Brian Redhead did. Especially Redhead. Anyway, John is not retiring, as he’ll still be doing Mastermind and other stuff, and I wish him all the best. It’s great to see someone working well into their seventies. Inspirational for those of us only in our fifties.

Yours,

Sean O’Grady

Associate editor