GRIMSBY MP Austin Mitchell has described his
parliamentary career as “a long drawn-out failure”.
He attributes this to having been 44 when
he was elected - “rather too old to be a rising meteor”.
What is more the onset of his parliamentary
career coincided with 18 years of opposition, scuppering any chance of a
governmental position.
Nor was there much chance of progress in
opposition because the path to promotion was blocked by the likes of such "Labour greats" as Denis Healey,
Roy Hattersley, Peter Shore, Barbara Castle and John Smith.
The MP, who has represented the constituency since 1979, has written a
book, Calendar Boy, which is about
his colourful times as a presenter both on the regional TV news programme,
Calendar, and its sister politic show Calendar
Sunday.
But he switched from TV to politics after
becoming “infatuated” by the latter.
He writes: “Politics is a minority sport
with interest less than gardening or angling and certainly less than sport.
“But it is addictive and I became hooked. I
discovered I wanted to play the game rather than just arrange the bouts and do
the commentary.”
After the glamour of TV, life as an MP
proved to be a different world - one often characterised, according to the MP,
by “pushiness, plotting, sycophancy and self-promotion”.
.
He continues: "MPs are the dogsbodies and
sewer cleaners of the constitution unless they are privately wealthy like
Michael Heseltine.
“Parliamentary activity all too often
consists of hanging around in the tea rooms gossiping, grumbling, sleeping and
waiting for something to happen.
“Nothing is more destructive to good looks
and mental balance than all-sight sittings.”
Never once in four decades was Mitchell
offered a front-bench position. “I am not complaining though it would have nice
to have been asked and offered a job - even as a lowly opposition spokesman.”he
says.
But there has been a plus side which the
MP, who will step down at next year’s General Election, describes as “serving
the best constituency in the country, one of the few real communities left”.
He adds: “At the end of the day, you can
help people, you can make minor changes to policy and you can plants seeds of
thought which may grow,
“I am glad I jumped out of the TV studio
and on to the Grimsby train.”
***
***
Much of the earlier content of the book is industry related - about the development
of Yorkshire TV and the colleagues, mostly men including Jonathan Aitken,
Richard Whiteley and Alan Hardwick with whom he worked on Calendar.
Surprisingly, he has little - and sometimes nothing - to say about his
many interviews with celebrities.
For instance, there is a photograph of Roy
Orbison but not a single word about the meeting or about the singer was like as
a studio guest
He cites John Lennon and Yoko Ono,
following the break-up of The Beatles,
as “the most interesting" of his interviewees. They talked "fascinatingly and frankly about
anything I asked”.
Yet Mitchell reveals nothing about the duo
and their replies, and the tape has apparently been lost.
“Par for the course with The Beatles,”he
says. “Granada wiped their first ever TV interview in an economy drive to re-use
video tape.”
Mitchell describes another interviewee, the
singer Joan Baez, as “a wonderful, serene, lovely lady, possibly an angel”, but
he had difficulties in his meetings with
Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and Anita Harris.
Of the cricketer Fred Trueman, he says:
“Once he realised he could not swear on air, Fred could always be relied on to
entertain. “
Although Mitchell has next to no knowledge of
football, he was asked to “referee” the famous studio confrontation between two
top managers, Brian Clough and Don Revie.
“Contrary to rumour neither had been
tricked into appearing,”he says. “Each received the same payment - £400 in
cash.
“The interview was dead easy for me. Each
disliked the other so much that there was no need for the interviewer to
intervene at all.
“I just sat there and watched the argument
unfurl – which it did brilliantly.
“I was fascinated by the interaction
between the two great managers, though very much on Clough’s side as the more
human of the two.”
* Calendar
Boy (published at £19.99 by Pen & Sword Books)
is available now from booksellers and online retailers.
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