AK on JP etc

[ken]

I got my copy of NO OFF SWITCH in the post yesterday and read it in one sitting, and while a high -velocity ride it is certainly calmer and more rational to read than what appears to be happening in these broadcast interviews (none of which I have heard or seen). Andy was always like this to a certain extent, his own worst enemy, by his own admission, and hence the title. There is an element of truth in his character portrait of Peel: he was both insecure and establishment-confident, at one and the same time. I also think, from my own limited experience, that, even weeding out Andy's understandable personal antipathies, he has a point about the Bannister / Parfitt years/style. The Peel and Kershaw and Walters axis it can now be seen were treated far better under the Beerling era than under Bannister. My own feeling  re Peel is as I put it in my book, still: his outward-inward personality needed a Walters character, an earthly representative, to do his dirty work for him in meetings. Unfortunately , after Walters' retirement in 91, for all their many talents, none of Walters' successors as his producer had anything like as much clout with the management as he had done. And once Birt had gone too (even before Walters' death) John had lost a direct route to the very top as well: Birt, a fellow self-made posh merseysider, was too much of a politician to deny Peel anything. Anyway, that's my tuppence worth. I am glad Andy is doing ok now, and I enjoyed his book.

k

--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "Humphrey" <thebarguest@...> wrote:
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> Surely losing your parent(s), like AK has, is emotionally worse than a work colleague ? Plus, AK had his partner and sister for "emotional support" , some people have no-one ("Eleanor Rigby") ...
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> AK sounded sooo angry and nervous on that J. Vine show ! It's hard to believe that he never got/gets violent. Vine understandably chickened out of probing AK's infidelity - bad journalism, as the listener has no idea at the end of the feature whether or not AK did cheat on his partner, which is the whole crux of the biscuit as Frank Zappa would say ... I prefer AK's lovely sis, Liz, meself ...
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> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "Colin" <colin_ellis@> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting discussion threads on AK over at the Radio 3 Forum:
> > http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?2553-Ubiquitous-Andy
> > http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?2541-He-s-your-mate-he-is-he-s-your-mate.
> > 
> > One contribution (#19) to the latter thread included this comment:
> > 
> > "Incidentally, I truly believe that he would benefit from emotional support on the loss of Peel and Walters because I feel instinctively that there were bereavement issues there which then led to the other difficulties"....
> > 
> > 
> > --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, David Quantick <davidquantick@> wrote:
> > >
> > > In a recent interview I did with AK about the OGWT, he claimed not only that the producers of Later... listened to his radio show to get ideas for musical guests but that the Top Gear format of two sidekicks with an older host was stolen from the Whistle Test lineup of himself and Mark Ellen plus David Hepworth. He also implied strongly that Jools Holland and Paula Yates spent their Tube wages on cocaine.
> > >
> >
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