TOUGHEST ONE FOR BBC’S VINE
BBC presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine has admitted that the toughest question he has ever faced came from a man in Neath. In a candid article for Mail Online he confessed Welsh coal miner Harry Jones confronting him on his £700k salary made him “the greatest caller in the history of my show”.
Writing for Mail Online he said: “When it came to the listeners, I need not have worried about them pulling their punches. The first call was from Harry Jones, a construction worker from Neath, Glamorgan. He paid me a fleeting compliment and then launched.
“‘Jeremy, I’d like to ask you a direct question. Are you embarrassed to pick up your pay cheque?’
“I sighed. ‘Do you know, I just feel very lucky every day, is the answer to that.’
“Mr Jones came back. ‘Do you think you’re overpaid?’ In my mind, I went through half a dozen possible answers in the space of a second. It’s the market... I work very hard... I was underpaid for 15 years... Chris Evans gets three times as much as me... It’s a question for the BBC.
“Each answer seemed lame to the point of offensive. So I laughed nervously and said, pathetically: ‘Er, I don’t even really want to answer that because I don’t think it’s the moment for me...’
“He broke in. ‘You spend your life asking people questions. Now I am asking you a direct question. Do you think you and the rest of the BBC are overpaid?’
“The directness of this was like a torpedo. The brevity stole my think- ing time. I now knew I was in terrible trouble.
“But as I began by conceding,ding, ‘Some are,’ and wondered in a panic whether this could be the last on-airn-air conversation of my career. Mr Jones launched into a tirade against all l presenters.
“‘Because I work with men in n the coal industry, I work on constructruction, I see men buckled through ough working all their life, doing hard graft and nothing to show for it. How w can you people justify the amountnt of money you’re earning? All of you are grossly, grossly overpaid.’
“It smarted. Because from his perspective, every word he said id was true — and on that day hisis perspective was the only one thatat mattered.”
Mr Vine, who is well know for r presenting the graphics on the BBC’s election night coverage, said it was only after the call he realised that Mr Jones was the greatest caller ever.
He said: “Afterwards, though, I realised something important. Mr Jones was probably the greatest caller in the history of my show, and his demolition of me was not something I should regret.”