Mark Mason

I regret my bust-up with the Bee Gees: Clive Anderson interviewed

The man who reinvented the chat show talks about mistaken identity, Macbeth and making a career out of being a bit of a smartarse

issue 22 February 2020

‘The really tricky thing,’ says Clive Anderson as we discuss the topic of being recognised in public, ‘is when they say, “I love your programmes —that thing you did with Margarita Pracatan…” Do I say now that that wasn’t me? Because if you let them carry on about how they loved your Postcards From…, and the Japanese game show, and then you tell them, they get very indignant and say, “Well, why did you let me give you all that praise?”’ It’s easy to understand the mistake in the abstract — indeed The Spectator’s arts editor made it himself in...

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