Thursday 29 January 2009

Piers Morgan on Dubai

I sat at a table in Jumeirah's Lime Tree Café, two anxious looking chaps from the production company facing me.

"So. Will you do it?"

"Look, I know Piers. I've worked with him on his media relations here. He'd burn me for thirty seconds' good TV. I do recognise that."

"No, no, no. You don't understand! Piers has changed!"

That made me belly laugh. I've been laughing about it since.

Piers Morgan is the famous former Daily Mirror editor who was sacked after a splash he ran about British soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners was rubbished by the authorities. One moment he was a successful editor and public figure who'd do tea with the Blairs, the next a jobless has-been; Morgan picked himself up from the floor and has built a new and highly successful career in TV. The whole story is documented in his excellent and frequently wickedly funny memoir, The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade. Love him or hate him (and, like Marmite and Clarkson, he polarises opinion), Piers came through the experience stronger and with a definite sense that he's seen the worst they can do to him and to hell with them all. I quite like him for that.

I did, in the end, agree to appear in Piers Morgan on Dubai. Filmed in luscious HD, the program looks at the glamour and fun of life in Dubai. Why on earth they wanted to talk to me (unglamorous and unfun), I don't know, but I thought it would be a chance to balance some of the egregious erks they'd undoubtedly pick up on with something at least down to earth.

Anyway, I'm a tart like that.

We drove out into the desert, a mirror-mounted camera filming me responding to our man, sitting in the back, asking questions. As we drove up into the dunes, Piers teased me about wasting my time driving around in this big sandpit. And then, as we flipped neatly over the crest of the dune and sailed down the leeward side into a huge bowl, you should (depending on the caprices of the editing room floor) hear Piers saying something like 'Erk!'.

Having just recovered from the not inconsiderable injuries sustained when he fell off a Segway, Piers didn't take very well to offroading, I have to say. It was quite an effort to get him back into the car once we'd got out to film an interview in the dunes.

We talked about stuff like groaning infrastructure, media freedom and blogging. To be honest, all these weeks later, I can't quite remember what we talked about. But at the end, Piers pulled a trick in response to my assertion that I had never been 'yanked' by the authorities for blogging - he nodded behind me and told me to look at the two guys from the Ministry of Information coming over the dunes behind me. I didn't, so he repeated it. I turned round and thereby gave them the ideal shot to end the piece: cut well, it'll look like I'm turning around in fear.

That's TV, I'm afraid. If that's how they cut it, that's fine by me. But it ain't the 'truth', folks.

Anyway, if anyone sees it on ITV tonight, please do feel free not to tell me all about it. Oh! And the production company still owes me a quid...

13 comments:

Mockingbird said...

To be honest, I've been seeing the trailers for Piers Morgan's new show and felt inexpressibly annoyed by them. It's not Piers. Or Dubai. But the premise of a show that glamourises what you can do with pots and pots of money that sticks in my craw. Companies are going bust in the UK at the rate of two or three a week. The real unemployment rate is a couple of million plus and rising (with roughly 10,000 people a week being dumped into the jobs market). Yet ITV think it's a good idea to float a show that focusses on fabulous wealth at this time. Out of touch?

Keef said...

Fame at last!

Mockingbird said...

I caught the show. It was a great deal better than I thought it was going to be. Piers was a little overhearty, and tried a little too hard to confirm his assumptions but I thought it was a surprisingly balanced view of a place that's grown exponentially in the last few years.

samuraisam said...

For anyone interested it is on youtube, however the 3rd part is missing: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=RE8VF72MExA

nzm said...

They were kind to you, Alex.

nzm said...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

hut said...

I thought Lime Tree Cafe' is strictly for Jumeirah housewives.

Alexander said...

@Nick

Not my choice of venue, believe me! :)

Spear The Almighty said...

This is pretty cool. I've missed it. Is there somewhere else this can be seen?

halfmanhalfbeer said...

Alexander, I can at last claim to be mates with someone famous. You Sir, are my hero.

And, yes, you are a tart!

HMHB

Graeme said...

Moron in Dubai? Proof positive that ****s love to congregate.

Anonymous said...

Hi Alexander,
Saw the piers morgan program last night. Thought you came out of it ok in comparison to others onthe program.
By the way, how many bulging brown envelopes do you think that Morgan was given for his gushing views on Dubai?
http://jacquesrenault.wordpress.com

i*maginate said...

Well done, old pal. Nice to put some action to the fit face - and body ;-) haha!

I only came here to see you have done a post on the piersexperience to wow you on the last line, which you haven't mentioned in your post.

"It's you they're after"

I didn't see you turn around on the youtube piece - perhaps different to the ITV programme.

Your genius doesn't stop at PR - that's for sure!

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