Hacks, Booze and 'live' broadcasting

Sunday, September 02, 2007

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Lack of space (as ever) in last week's chat with Panorama's John Sweeney prevented me from exploring what he had to say about how years on the road as a war reporter drove him to drink. While reporting on the Soviet Union's war with Afghanistan, he says the only way he could get to sleep at night after interviewing Afghan torture victims, was by drinking a bottle of vodka and reading a PG Wodehouse book.

Sweeney says his drinking is now in check, however, at its worst, it made booking him for late night TV and radio appearances a gamble for producers. One night he was on Andrew Neil's late night TV politics talk show "during the dying days of the Major government", when he fleetingly passed out during a live studio debate.

"It was during my bad drinking days on the Observer," he recalls, "I was pissed and Neil turned to me suddenly and said 'What do you think'? I said: 'The last days of John Major's government remind me of one of Shelley's great poems..' and just as I was about to quote from it, my mind went totally blank and my eyes glazed over. The camera crew laughed which is a very bad sign. There was a fantastic silence for about ten seconds, during which I died. Then, thank god, I suddenly came out of my stupour and reeled off the quote. Everyone roared with laughter."

All of which reminds me of a late night radio discussion show on Five Live I produced a decade ago which featured, among others, the writer Will Self. The subject was food and Self rolled into the studio just as we were going live at midnight and promptly passed out face-down on the table, to the bemusement of the other guests and the thinly-veiled horror of the production team (me).

Occasionally the presenter - the wonderful John Diamond - would lob a question his way. But Self slept, indeed snored, soundly through each one. Then, just when everyone had forgotten all about him, he suddenly sat bolt upright as if someone had stuck a pin in his leg and joined the conversation silencing the panel with an eloquent and graphic line, as I remember, about Victorian toilets…before slumping forward on the table for the rest of the show.

Posted by James Silver - On Sunday, September 02, 2007

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