On Working Lunch, I once went completely blank and uttered perhaps the longest ‘er’ in television history. I am always aware that it could happen again
The first time it happened to me I was staring at a blank wall. It was nearly 30 years ago now and I was presenting a new live programme called Working Lunch on
BBC Two, my first on-screen gig. After each of the first few shows I’d literally had to wring out my sweat-soaked shirts, but now I was past the terror stage; I thought I knew what I was doing. Fatal.
I was interviewing two people. One of them was in the studio with me. The other was elsewhere; to the viewer it looked as if he was on a giant screen behind me but, as this was one of the first virtual reality studios, all I could see was a featureless wall. I can’t now remember who the interviewees were; crucially, I couldn’t remember then either.