Piers gets to grill Farage
NOT one to shy away from controversy, Piers Morgan’s new series of Life Stories is kicking off with the polarising Nigel Farage. And, the presenter tells Susan Griffin, he’s gearing up for the ‘joust’
Piers Morgan’s just arrived on the 20th floor of the ITV studios on London’s Southbank, half an hour after Good Morning Britain’s ended.
“By this time I’m normally in bed,” he states. “I just go straight home. I don’t even talk to my wife [writer Celia Walden]. I walk straight through the door, upstairs, back into bed, and pretend it never happened,” quips the 51-year-old.
Following successful guest stints, Morgan joined the breakfast TV show as a permanent fixture in late 2015, but admits the early start “never gets easier, it’s just a killer”.
His GMB co-presenter, Susanna Reid, is often left exasperated by the former journalist’s bullish ways.
“My family are incredibly opinionated. I’m probably the shrinking violet out the lot of them,” Morgan retorts.
Does he feel he’s winning Reid over?
“It’s quite a long, painful courtship, isn’t it? I wouldn’t say I’m winning her over but slowly, the Ice Maiden is thawing, a tiny little bit,” he adds, grinning.
Aside from Good Morning Britain, and a new series of Killer Women, Morgan’s been filming more episodes of his chat show Life Stories, which began back in 2009 with Sharon Osbourne.
There’ll be four episodes this time round, beginning with Nigel Farage.
He’s yet to film the interview, but Morgan, who thinks it’ll be “fascinating” to see whether the contentious former UKIP leader will let his guard down, reveals: “I heard that members of his entourage are involved in quite high stakes gambling over whether I can make him cry or not.
“It’s going to be a very combative interview. He’s a very smart guy, can be very funny, very charming, he can be very tough too and he has quite polarising opinions, but I think he’s coming ready to play. He sees it as a bit of a joust, and so do I.”
Morgan might not share Farage’s views, but points out “it’s not really about politics, it’s [looking at] who’s the man behind this incredible seismic bombshell, which has ripped this county to pieces.”
Nigel Havers is also taking part. “We’d been trying to get him because he’s the charmer and he’s been in an amazing range of stuff. He’s very funny but [there’s] real tragedy in his life,” says Morgan.
“He lost his second wife to horrendous cancer and he got very emotional talking about that. But now he’s in a good place, to do that without completely losing it. It’s the kind of show my mum would love, and she’s my biggest critic.”
The two other celebs on the line-up are Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb and Boy George, both people who’ve declined to take part in the past.
“They were always on my hit-list,” says Morgan. “Barry Gibb because he’s one of the greatest music icons this country’s ever produced. And in a really weird series of events, he’s lost his three younger brothers. And his wife had never given an interview on television before, so she pops up on the giant screen and he was like, ‘Oh my god!’”
Morgan’s been trying to enlist Boy George since the first series (“because he’s probably the most flamboyant pop icon we’ve ever had”). They’re yet to film his episode, but the host’s “already excited”.
“You know with Boy George you’re going to get all the humour, a lot of raw honesty, an amazing story of great highs, terrible lows; prison time, obviously. He said he’s going to talk for the time about what really happened that led to him going to prison, so it could be very revelatory.”