Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
I love asking EMBARRASSING questions
As he vows to reinvent the chat show with his cheeky new series, TV judge Robert Rinder tells all about fame, dames and small claims
Although it’s the hottest day ever, Robert Rinder, daytime TV’s bestknown judge, is looking forward to spending his evening in a studio filming a one-off Dame Edna Everage show. Robert will be among Edna’s guests on the programme, which will air later this year on BBC1 and promises celebrity chat, music and ‘a few surprises’.
‘I’m a huge Barry Humphries fan,’ he beams. ‘I was asked if I’d do it and I said there are no depths I won’t sink to. But I’m useless when I get excited by people I’m a fan of.’
It’s difficult to imagine Judge Rinder starstruck. He’s certainly never lost for words. While he showed humility on Strictly three years ago, it’s his straight-talking that’s made him a successful criminal barrister who’s also entertained millions watching his hit show as he presides over small-claims cases.
He also has many famous friends. There’s his old university mate Benedict Cumberbatch, and he grew up with the likes of former S Club 7 singer Rachel Stevens (‘She was one of my first girlfriends and we still meet up’), Emma Bunton and the late Amy Winehouse (‘Her dad and mine are very close friends’) in north London. He also knows politicians, such as George Osborne (‘I met him through my ex-husband and I’m an honorary godfather to his daughter’) and Ed Balls, a fellow competitor in the sequins stakes in 2016.
But there is a type who leaves him awestruck. ‘ It’s people who are famous from your childhood,’ he explains. ‘When I met ex-kids’ TV presenter Andi Peters I was so flustered I had to go and find a towel.’
Robert’s quick wit has secured him a new four-part topical comedy show, The Rob Rinder Verdict on Channel 4. With a host of celebrity guests, he’ll satirically dissect current news stories. ‘Imagine the most peculiar dinner party,’ he says, ‘with people you’d never put together. Who wants to go to a party where it’s just people from the left or the right? Or where you just talk politics. It makes me want to ask embarrassing personal questions, like about the first time they had sex.’
Robert, 41, thinks the time is right for something new in chat shows. ‘Graham Norton is fantastic, but it’s stuff we’ve seen for a long time: “Tell us about your new movie while we have a pre-prepared anecdote.” I think people are more interested in celebrities’ private lives. I’d rather have Benedict on talking about knitting – not that he does knit – than going on about his new film.
We’ll ask questions like Clive James used to, with a wry comic eye, being as open-minded as possible as we discuss subjects like euthanasia.’ Robert’s path to TV was not conventional. A barrister by day, he wrote scripts in his spare time and met producer Tom McLennan with a proposal to revive 70s drama Crown Court. ITV was developing a British version of Judge Judy, and McLennan suggested Robert front the show. Judge Rinder was born. Growing up, Robert wanted to be an actor, but realised law might be a better option when studying politics and modern history at Manchester University. ‘I’d never have had a Cumberbatchian career, but I might have had the odd appearance on Heartbeat,’ he muses. ‘I auditioned for a role in a comedy play and then saw Benedict read the same part. I didn’t know who he was, but I thought , “That sounds like the way the writer intended – I need a rethink!”’
Robert’s parents divorced when he was five, and he and his older brother Craig were brought up mostly by his mum Angela. She encouraged them to engage in conversations at the dinner table, which helped develop his strong opinions. ‘I was probably insufferable. Nigella Lawson once said she didn’t suit childhood very well, and that’s always resonated with me. We were a big Jewish family so you were lucky to get a word in edgeways, but I had a definite sense of right and wrong. My mum set up a publishing business so we’d have au pairs helping to look after us. I’d be six and giving the au pairs relationship advice.
‘My mum informed so much of the way I see the world, and it helps with the family cases I deal with. She never projected the feelings of toxicity she may have harboured towards my dad on to me or my brother. I’m as close to my dad, who is a black cab driver and lives in a council flat. It’s given me an insight into how people live.’ Angela wasn’t surprised when her son revealed he was gay. Although he’d had girlfriends, by his mid-teens he was more certain. ‘I had a very strong awareness of my sexuality when I was younger. It took a while to come to terms with it. I was 16 when I had relations with a boy. Mum was concerned, not for any other reason than being worried for me.’
Robert entered into a civil partnership with fellow barrister Seth Cummings in a ceremony conducted by Benedict in Ibiza in 2013, but they separated in 2018. ‘We had 13 years together. Divorce is a last resort. It was very upsetting.
‘I’m a useless dater,’ he adds. ‘I become a bit like Hugh Grant in a Richard Curtis film – a combination of insanity and tongue- tied.’ Luckily he has other single friends like Susanna Reid to go on holiday with. ‘ Friendship is an art, and she’s an artist at it,’ he says. ‘My problem is that I’m the gay who style forgot. I go to Ibiza but I’ll go to a club that closes at midnight.’
Not that Robert has time for holidays right now. He’s filmed a new series about the Holocaust, after learning about the deaths of several relatives at the hands of the Nazis through the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? last year. ‘I took my mum to Treblinka and there’s a profoundly emotional revelation,’ he says.
He’s just filmed Judge Rinder’s seventh series and his new Channel 4 show starts this week. ‘Judge Rinder is one of the delights of my life. So hopefully that will continue, along with my new show. It’s been a while since we’ve had the kind of sardonic questions Clive James used to ask – I think it’s time we did again.’
The Rob Rinder Verdict starts on Friday at 10pm on Channel 4.