Confessions of a Newsnight insider
- 4 Dec 07, 03:37 PM
Jeremy Paxman bought me dinner last night.
Canap茅s, candlelight, cocktail music..? Yeah, right.
He thrusts a 拢20 note at me, its silver strip catching the fierce fluorescents in his office and says, 鈥淚鈥檒l have the meal deal - and get something for yourself鈥.
Then with that trademark televisual twinkle in his eye he adds, 鈥楢nd don鈥檛 ever say I don鈥檛 buy you dinner!鈥
The 6.30 food order is something of a NN office ritual. Nearly everything we do is deadline driven and the idea of downing tools and sloping off somewhere to eat for an hour is a tad quaint.
Angry hacks
OK, we鈥檙e not talking Victorian children snatching a scoop of porridge at one end of the loom before weaving their way back again. But you do see harried journos biting off more than they can chew while trying to craft a video package for your later consumption.
As the office junior - admittedly one of the Beeb鈥檚 more senior juniors - it falls on me to place the food order. You鈥檇 think that being the Arch-Nourisher of NN would put me in a privileged position, but a hungry man is an angry man and you can鈥檛 please all of the hacks all of the time.
Get your hands off my falafels
One might be delayed in a legal meeting while another is itching to eat before being stuck in the studio for a pre-show recording. Added to which, if you don鈥檛 keep enough people on board there鈥檚 a danger of losing the free delivery.
So many variables, so little time...
But it鈥檚 all in a 13-hour day鈥檚 work and a newsroom marches on its stomach. Plus, there鈥檚 nothing like the wonder in a reporter鈥檚 eye when those foil food parcels arrive. It鈥檚 only slightly tainted as she says, 鈥楯eremy - have you got hold of my falafels?鈥
Which brings us back to Mr P鈥檚 proffered 拢20 note.
I can鈥檛 prove it, but I swear that under the glare of the strip lights, on the flip side of Her Majesty, Adam Smith鈥檚 winking at me.
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Jeremy Paxman took you out for dinner?!
LOL
I'd 'ave hocked up!!
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So My friend does this revelation mean young Jeremy Paxman is
the new face of the McDonalds *Happy Meal* ? if I were Borkowski I'd be on that ad - campaign already !
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Whatever.
I'm not watching anymore Templar T.V.
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Oh ha ha ha!!!! I saw the title and thought of those dodgy 1970's movies " Confessions of a....." I wondered what was going to be revealed!!Shame it was only food!!! ;-)
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I'm sorry. I would have been honoured if I had been taken to dinner - even a McDonalds.
Friends? X
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Jeremy has class :). He is very good behind the scenes and a real professional at heart. I am glad he is as friendly behind the scenes as he appears in front of the camera and he should be given a knighthood ASAP. If he would accept it that is ;).
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Sorry to be off message, but, Jeremy Paxman is, for me, a shock winner of a Royal TV Society Award. He has one approach to interviews (by no means a 'broad range') and he exists 100% within the Westminster bubble: No notion of an alternative to 1st past-the-post Labour/Tory politics.
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Sorry to be off message, but, Jeremy Paxman is, for me, a shock winner of a Royal TV Society Award. He has one approach to interviews (by no means a 'broad range') and he exists 100% within the Westminster bubble: No notion of an alternative to 1st past-the-post Labour/Tory politics.
Complain about this post
Sorry to be off message, but, Jeremy Paxman is, for me, a shock winner of a Royal TV Society Award. He has one approach to interviews (by no means a 'broad range') and he exists 100% within the Westminster bubble: No notion of an alternative to 1st past-the-post Labour/Tory politics.
Complain about this post
Sorry to be off message, but, Jeremy Paxman is, for me, a shock winner of a Royal TV Society Award. He has one approach to interviews (by no means a 'broad range') and he exists 100% within the Westminster bubble: No notion of an alternative to 1st past-the-post Labour/Tory politics.
Complain about this post
Sorry to be off message, but, Jeremy Paxman is, for me, a shock winner of a Royal TV Society Award. He has one approach to interviews (by no means a 'broad range') and he exists 100% within the Westminster bubble: No notion of an alternative to 1st past-the-post Labour/Tory politics.
Complain about this post