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Piers Morgan:
The Founder | Thursday 11 March 2010
The Gordon Brown Interview
Vikki Vile
You could say Piers Morgan
enjoys a challenge. He manages
to make Simon Cowell seem “the
good looking one” on Britain’s Got
Talent. In his old job at a tabloid he
made The Mirror popular and now
he’s undertaken the challenge of
making our ever more unpopular
Prime Minister shown us all his
emotional side. Car crash TV? You
bet? But must see TV? Naturally ...
It was made incredibly clear
throughout the carefully edited trail
for the programme that for one
night only the audience were being
invited to momentarily forget about
the deaths of innocent teenage
soldiers, some of which probably
even too young to know what
they’re even fighting for, to forget
about the dyer state of our economy
and the embarrassing expenses row
and instead to positively embrace
this newfound “human” Gordon
into our lives ... and, as he probably
hopes for, into our ballot paper.
Funnily enough, it has been widely
commented on how coincidental
it is that Mr Brown felt that now, a
matter of weeks before the election
to “bare his soul” (Don’t you
dare accuse ITV of spin, will you?)
in what surely will be the closest
fought contest that students of our
generation have known.
“Oh, please call me Gordon,”
he panders with that creepy grin
within the opening minutes. This
is demonstrating all the early signs
of being dreadful. You mean I can
call you by your Christian name,
Gordon? You’re too kind. That’s my
vote sorted. What a top chap, let’s
all go home. Or perhaps not.
The decision as to whether to
open the political can of worms on
whether a politician should talk so
openly about their private life is
hugely debated. Is it important to
like the person at the centre of the
policies or are they simply there
do their job? No one can deny the
death of a child is an appalling
occurrence, whatever your professional
position, but the idea of the
discussing of such a tragic event for
reasons of political motivation and
promotion is surely a bit ... sick? No
one who watched the programme
can deny that the moments where
Brown talked about the death of
Jennifer Jane was hugely sad but
at the same time, a little uncomfortable.
I don’t however, believe
the welling up was to win votes.
His emotions appeared genuine,
however, Morgan’s aid of a selection
of video clips surrounding this time
all pushed this section of the interview
relentlessly for emotive ends
and descended into a slightly crass,
insensitive and distasteful display
from the interviewer as opposed to
the interviewee.
One can’t help but compare
Brown’s personal tragedy to the
similar case of David Cameron’s
son, Ivan. You cannot help but feel
it’s only a matter of time until The
Sun runs a pole asking “Which
child’s death is sadder?!” Answers
on a postcard. I’m sure Jan Moir
would have something to say.
Morgan may not be able to deal
with the heavy stuff so well, often
appearing to deliberately encourage
his guest to display emotion by any
means but in complete contrast,
boy, does he milk the lighter stuff?!
During the course of the hour
long interview we saw “comedian”
Brown; who described falling in
love with his wife Sarah on a plane
as being “love at first flight”. It’s
been reported the tumbleweed was
visible on the TV screens across
the UK. We saw “university-stud”
Brown; A VT depicting Brown’s
time in higher education showed
(all very This is Your Life) him to
have a full head of suspiciously
dyed looking hair, complete with
two fully functioning eyes and
a questionable suit with flaired
trousers. And finally we had “He’just-like-you-and-me”
Brown as
he recounted the “hilarious” tale of
when he found himself stuck in a
public toilet only to find Tony Blair
(of all the people, eh?) to come to
his rescue. How very Brokeback
Mountain.
Despite these undeniably cringe
TV
making moments, it’s widely
acknowledged by many political
commentators that Brown came
out of the interview well – dignity
intact. He demonstrated rather
admirably he can in fact do emotion
without resembling a malfunctioning
robot. (Remember those
horrific YouTube clips?) Whether
the exercise proved fruitful remains
to be seen, I personally cannot help
but feel the whole performance was
incredibly well stage managed and
well thought through, definitely not
filled with any unexpected questioning.
What is true for the majority
of voters, surely, is that they
would have preferred their leader
to undergo an evening of interrogation
from Paxman or Maitlis on
Newsnight, as opposed to Morgan,
most widely known for his ability
to judge a glorified talent contest.
Maybe next him he’ll let Ant and
Dec have a go ...