Diary – 4 October 2008

I was without my dance partner last week. John Stapleton had abandoned me on the GMTV sofa for the comforts of a hotel in Manchester and a well-stocked mini-bar. Apparently this particular Labour party conference was like a family having problems, putting on a brave face for Christmas, according to one of those attending. I sat on the sofa in splendid isolation, and talked about global meltdowns. Greg Wise came in to do an interview on GMTV Today. He is one of the nicest men in showbiz. And possibly the most handsome. Last time he was in, I bored him to death with plays I had seen. I thought I saw panic in his eyes as I approached, so I left him contemplating a stain on the wall.

In the evening, I nipped down to an art gal-lery near the Ritz, where the award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson (the Guardian, Daily Mirror, The Spectator) was having a F— party to celebrate his latest book, called F—: The Human Odyssey, a series of paintings telling the story of earth with only that word in the speech bubbles. One of my favourites is ‘The Shakespearian Theatre’, with the word repeated in iambic pentameter.

On Tuesday, I phoned Stapes after the News Hour for a debrief. He told me he had gone out for a Chinese the night before with Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, our editor, Martin Frizell, and our political editor, Gloria de Piero. There was a lull in the conversation, and he asked Alan, ‘Are you going to get promoted?’ There was a silence. ‘I’m not sure there’s going to be a reshuffle,’ said Johnson. ‘I was talking about QPR,’ said John.

Clare Nasir, our weather presenter, asked me if I’d seen any warm trousers for her outside broadcasts, with winter coming up.