Those Braeburn apple cheeks turned a deeper shade of magenta
Basil and tomato. Cricket and warm beer. Vintage armagnac and a fine Havana. There are certain things in life which go together jolly well. To that list we can add David Cameron and daytime television.
With his easy-going charm and knack for self-deprecation, he is the maestro of the soft sofa interview.
During his six years in Downing street, those hotchpotch morning shows – appearances sandwiched between segments on celebrity break-ups and couples therapy – gradually became his manor.
Yesterday, with a 752-page, £25 memoir to flog, he was back in iTV’s This Morning studios along with wife samantha.
it is a measure of Cameron’s skills in this arena that even when he inadvertently turned the air blue, he came off rather well.
The moment came when he was discussing those infamous leave campaign buses with slogans that claimed Brexit would save us £350million a week.
He intended to say they had made him want to shout. instead, he accidentally used the word ‘s***’. Oops! Those Braeburn apple cheeks suddenly turned a deeper shade of magenta. samantha struggled to stifle her matronly giggles.
Two hours previously, Cameron had been put through the wringer on BBC Radio 4 by John Humphrys, who used his final appearance presenting the Today programme to skewer the ex-PM for involving the Queen in the scottish referendum.
Thankfully for Dave, interviews by Phillip schofield and Holly Willoughby are more fluffy bunny than bludgeon.
We learnt he does all the cooking these days, that it was samantha who talked him into introducing a law for same- sex marriage and that he occasionally found himself locked out of No 10.
such revelations may not trouble the inky chroniclers of 21st century history, but viewers lap this stuff up.
Dave was in what Etonians call ‘ half change’. Gingham shirt, blazer, jeans.
He’s puffier round the gills since his days on the political frontline, but the hairline’s holding steady. swan-necked sam sported a wraparound dress and a perfect fringe. Really, they could have been a Hollywood glamour couple discussing their new movie, or whatever people go on these shows to discuss.
The Brexit-penitent ex-PM started with the sackcloth and ashes stuff.
‘i really hope we can get out of this hiatus,’ said Dave, referring to the post-referendum mess. Holly had her really worried face on. Cameron said that once he had lost the referendum, he knew they had to get out of Downing street pronto.
‘it all happened too quickly, didn’t it?’, he remarked, turning to his wife. ‘it all, yeah, it was super speedy,’ added sam.
Mrs Cameron’s accent remains an enigma. Not quite estuary but hardly posh. she looked a tad glass-eyed at times. i wondered if she’d glugged down another stiff gin like the one she had at 8am the morning her husband quit as prime minister.
‘There are some people who say you threw a hand grenade and then ran off,’ said tousle-haired schofield. Dave submitted himself to a few further self-flagellations to pla
cate his host. Things then started to relax a little. We were shown that famous clip of Cameron announcing in the street outside No 10 that he was off, before marching back into Downing Street singing ‘dum-de-dum-de-dum’, forgetting his microphone was still on. CAMERON explained he started humming because he was anxious the No 10 door might not open. He had once walked out to make a statement about egypt, only to face the embarrassment of not being able to get back in.
By now, Holly was wearing her best chipmunk smile. She turned the discussion to michael Gove and his wife Sarah Vine (of this parish), with whom the Camerons had been very close friends but fallen out after Gove backed Brexit so enthusiastically.
Sam revealed she’d texted mrs Gove on Wednesday after the mail columnist had written movingly of her sadness at how Brexit had torn the two families apart for three years.
‘It was beautifully written. It was lovely. much of what she said, I feel exactly the same,’ she said.
We heard a fun tale about how Theresa may unexpectedly turned up at Downing Street just as SamCam was swigging a beer and ‘smoking a few rollies’.
‘It was the weekend!’, trilled Sam. a baronet’s daughter who rolls her own? my, my!
We finished with the gooey stuff. They have a good marriage. They’re stronger than ever, etc. as Sam spoke, Dave shot her a beaming look of pride.
Chaps will know the one I’m talking about. It’s that smile of a man who knows he’s punching above his weight.