How can a whole year have flown by since the 2011 Henley Literary Festival? And how can this year's autumn weather be so different ? Twelve months ago I listened to Bella Pollen and Kay Burley
talk about their books in sweltering sunshine. This year the audience at Jeremy
Vine’s event were all in winter coats, scarves and (in my case) fingerless
gloves.
But who cared about the chilly temperature when Vine was there to treat us to a hilarious hour of anecdotes about his journalistic career – from his cub
reporter days on the Coventry Evening
Telegraph to his 25 years at the BBC.
Interviewed by the Daily
Mail’s Sandra Parsons, Vine received a rapturous reception at Henley’s packed
Kenton Theatre. A tall rangy figure clad in jeans, dark jacket and bright
turquoise socks, he talked at top speed for 60 minutes, barely pausing for
breath. Along the way he listed his top five DJs – Kenny Everett, John Peel, Terry Wogan,
Chris Evans and Steve Wright – and his top four TV interviewers – Richard Dimbleby, David Dimbleby, Robin Day and Jeremy Paxman (or Paxo as he called
him).
Even though I often listen to Jeremy Vine’s lunchtime show
on Radio 2, I’d never realised what a
brilliant mimic he is. Talking about his days as a political reporter at
Westminster (and his trip round the UK in an ancient VW camper van during the
2001 general election) he got Peter Mandelson down to a tee. His Terry Wogan
impersonation wasn’t half bad either.
I loved Vine’s recollections of working as a reporter on the
Today programme. Those were the days
when the late, great Brian Redhead was at the helm and Vine recalled Redhead’s
habit of smiling when he turned his microphone on. “And when he spoke you could
hear the smile in his voice,” said Vine in awe.
It’s All News to Me
by Jeremy Vine (Simon & Schuster, £18.99)
