I blame Jonathan Ross for all my troubles

Emily Maitlis looks back on her worst moments in 2008, the anxiety she has caused her fans and her part in a ‘YouTube classic’

Looking back, I suppose you could say the low point of 2008 was when I accused the Chief Rabbi of leaving lewd and abusive messages on people’s answerphones. That’s the trouble with live TV. You think you’re saying one thing and you end up saying quite another. I was talking to the Conservative MP John Whittingdale on the BBC News Channel about the Jonathan Ross/Andrew Sachs affair, when all of a sudden I found — by way of the speed reader’s elision — I had put those now infamous remarks into the mouth of a certain (Sir) Jonathan Sacks. I haven’t heard from the Chief Rabbi. And Yom Kippur is a long way off, but I should probably put that fairly high on the atoning list just to be sure.

When it happened, I don’t think it even registered. My on-air ‘husband’ of the moment, Ben Brown, looked at me with a certain hesitation but, tactfully, said nothing. And as a result, I caught the stare but misread it as supportive encouragement or something equally and deeply misguided. I carried on smiling.

I say that’s the low point of the year, but clearly, there are some fine contenders. The moment in Minneapolis St Paul, for example, when I was attempting to explain the popularity with the Republican heartland of the newly unleashed Sarah Palin. ‘Staunch pro-life Evangelist,’ I said, ‘patriotic mother of five children, one of whom is currently serving in the Iraqi army.’ There are many qualities that would endear you to the Grand Old Party as their vice presidential candidate.