A national treasure? That makes me sound like Victoria’s commode
As John Humphrys retires from Radio 4’s Today programme this week aged 76, a former colleague pays tribute to his friend’s terrier-like tenacity
take of sounding complacent when quizzed in the Today studio. John sounded more and more indignant as the interview went on. It is still gripping listening. Here is a flavour:
Humphrys: “Did you see the Guardian yesterday morning? Did you read the Guardian’s front page yesterday morning?”
Entwistle: “No, John, I was giving a speech early on…”
Humphrys: “Aren’t some things rather more important than others? I mean, do you not have to have a different set of priorities?”
Entwistle: “But you have to prepare for speeches you have to make, John.”
Humphrys: “The Guardian yesterday morning yesterday carried a front-page story, which we now know was right, that cast doubt, serious doubt, on the BBC’s Newsnight programme – a flagship news programme for the BBC. You didn’t know that actually happened?”
Entwistle: didn’t.”
And so it continued – relentlessly “No, I’m afraid
I– for nearly 10 minutes. By the end of that day, Entwistle had resigned, becoming the shortest-serving director-general in the BBC’s history at just over a month.
Yet despite John’s fearsome reputation, I always found him a generous on-air partner.
There is bound to be a bit of rivalry between presenters on a programme like Today, and everyone who has presented the show knows what it is like to watch your presenting partner eat up airtime you had hoped to have for your own big interview.
John did not need to play games like that. He dominated simply because he was so good.
Today will of course continue to flourish, just as it has done following the departure of previous presenters like Brian Redhead – who died in harness – Sue MacGregor and James Naughtie. But all the programme’s longstanding stars have left their imprint on the show, and John’s is
likely to be more enduring than most. Before writing this article I dropped John an email to say that I would be paying tribute to him as a “national treasure”. He responded that the description made him sound like “Victoria’s commode”.
A royal chamber pot he most certainly is not, but a treasure he most certainly is.
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