peripathetic

Talk-show host, ex-MP may be abandoned by BBC
Robert Kilroy-Silk, former MP and presenter of a daily morning talk-show Kilroy, may face the end of his broadcast career. Apparently the BBC, which has suspended his show after he published an anti-Arab article in the UK Sunday Express, is now considering how to get rid of him completely. One option is to conclude that he cannot be considered able to conduct his show - modelled on issues-based audience discussion like Jerry Springer and Trisha - because his impartiality has been compromised.

There's another reason, however, for dismissing him, and for all channels worldwide to change their studio policy on these shows. A few months or a year after my mother died - I forget which - my father and sister went to London to appear on a Kilroy episode about bereavement. Having watched a couple of shows beforehand, they'd seen his warm, caring studio presence, his ability to bond with the audience members and discuss embarrassing or troubling issues with members of the public in front of a TV camera. So they probably made their decision to appear on the basis that 1. It would be a dignified way of dealing with the issue, and 2. If they had important points to make, they could be made.

They were all in the studio. The producer had started the 'audience warm-up' about 30 minutes before the air time. 5 minutes before airtime, Kilroy walked in with a couple of colleagues, and with not a word to the audience, turned his back on them while a conversation took place. It was only at the last second that he walked to his spot and turned on the smile. From then on, the show went as normal. Moving into the audience, showing charm, humour, sensitivity, etc. etc. And as soon as the credits had rolled and the day's show was off-air he immediately walked straight out of the studio without even a goodbye. Switch on, whoosh, switch off.

What a businessman masquerading as a human. I believe, in his chosen line of work, he isn't alone.