Category : TV
Entertainment
Date : 26.03.2004
Printable version
Alastair
Campbell took to the stage for a rare public performance on his
beloved bagpipes on Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE's Parkinson this week.
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However, before showing his prowess at the pipes, the
Prime Minister's former communications chief talked candidly about his
feelings towards the press and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, the tragic circumstances surrounding
the Hutton Inquiry and he revealed how his nervous breakdown came to
a climax in 1986.
Campbell spoke frankly about the moment, 18 years ago, when he felt
everything truly come crashing down in his life to the extent that he
was taken into custody by the police.
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"I was flattered into doing
a job that I should never have taken - way above my grade at the time,"
he said, "and I didn't want to admit that I had made a mistake
and in fact I knew I'd made a mistake and I started working too hard,
drinking too much and I just completely lost the plot and then one day
in 1986 I just completely cracked."
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"I was actually with Neil
Kinnock and he was having a busy day of engagements and I was shadowing
him for the day and the police picked me up for my own safety –
and took me in and locked me up."
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"I was just giving them cause
for concern – I mean - to be honest a lot of it I can't remember
but at the time that they picked me up, I was in the foyer of this building
and I was just – I don't know why I was doing this – but I
was just emptying my pockets onto the floor and tearing everything to
little bits.
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"And I was trying to make phone calls but the phone
wasn't switched on but I didn't realise that and I couldn't understand
why I couldn't get through to anybody.
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"And that of course is driving you and you just
feel you are on this kind of spiral.
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"You actually feel the end is coming – you
just feel your life's gone – you cannot understand what's happened.
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"I was banged up for a while and eventually seen
by doctors and taken to a hospital.
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"It was terrible but at the same time, I now look
back on it and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because
I came out of it.
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"It took about a year, but I totally sorted myself."
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Parkinson also asked him about his demonisation in
the media and how the Hutton Inquiry had affected everyone involved.
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"What do you feel like coming
in here today to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ? Daniel in the lions' den?" Michael asked.
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"Not at all," he replied
and then recalled a story where he had been asked publicly to name five
things that made this country special.
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"And I said off the top of my head – the NHS,
our armed forces, our voluntary sector which is superb, the Premier
League which I think is superb, and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ. And I still think that."
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After discussing the press and his firm views on the
conclusions of the Hutton inquiry, he concluded: "... I still feel
that the Â鶹ԼÅÄ has a very special place in Britain's cultural, political
and social life and long may it continue.
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"I have got no agenda against the Â鶹ԼÅÄ whatsoever."
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Parkinson then pressed him on the "casualties"
of the Hutton affair.
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"Well look, you use the word casualty," he
replied, "and I never lose sight of the fact that the real casualty
in that whole thing is David Kelly, who committed suicide, and his family
who will never ever get over that and I think about that a lot."
"Well I don't think you would be human if you didn't – anybody
who was involved in that whole sorry episode - if you didn't think about
whether there were things that you could have done differently. But
the reality is now none of us will ever know."
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Parkinson asked if Dr Kelly's tragic death could have
been avoided in any way.
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"Well it could certainly have been avoided if that
story had never been reported and then been broadcast because it shouldn't
have been," answered Campbell.
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Michael pressed him on whether the tragedy lies on his
conscience, Campbell simply paused gravely before replying.
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"Look... I just... it's something I think about
because it's very, very sad."
On the topic of his close friend and former employer, Tony Blair, Parkinson
cheekily asked: "What's the most irritating thing about him?"
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"Well he's got this habit of phoning you and playing
his guitar at the same time," he replied.
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He then went on to describe the type of phone calls
he would receive where the Prime Minister would be playing guitar in
the background and saying "It's just a new thing I'm trying out".
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"That I found a bit hard
to deal with - on a Sunday on the day you are trying to have a bit of
time off," Campbell laughed.
Campbell also joked to Michael that he was once told many years ago
by his then editor, "If you stay around and play your cards right
you could be the next Michael Parkinson!"
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Also on this week's show, former EastEnders' hardman
Ross Kemp talked about his time on the soap and the difficulties
the fame brought, but he would not rule out the possibility of a return
to the show.
"I was 25 when I joined and I was 35 when I finished. I did ten
years and, you know, you get less than that for murder these days,"
he laughed.
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And is there at least a possibility he will be Grant
Mitchell again?
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"Without a doubt. I mean
as an actor you never know really where your next job's coming from
and they haven't officially asked me to go back and I've also been under
contract to ITV so I couldn't go back."
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"You never say never in the job I do because you
never know what's around the corner. So, not at the moment, but you
never know."
Other guests on Parkinson are comedian Jimmy Carr and singer
Norah Jones.
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Parkinson is at 10.40pm on Saturday 27 March on
Â鶹ԼÅÄ ONE.
