Alan Clark

And then she said, this is really boring, I'd like to watch Four in a Bed.

She's so camp, it's like living with Alan Clark.

What, Joanie?

Yeah, I mean, Four in a Bed.

And the state withdrew the case.

the court was packed with media not one paper published it no one knew about I didn't say anything for probably about six months and I did go on Alan Clark's podcast and I told the story for the first time so again where is this a reactive government not a proactive government again all the businesses that were closed that could have been opened if antigen testing was there how faster the country could have been opened if antigen testing was there And the event nurse fair-placed them when I rang them with my idea.

I was a paid member back then, said, this is a great idea.

You go to it and we'll see how you get on.

There's a UK political section up there.

And I'm just looking at some of the names, Alistair Darling, Heseltine, Ted Heath, Alan Clark, Margaret Thatcher, Chris Patton, Ken Clark.

The biographies, Nigel Lawson, they're up there.

Biographies are books about him.

It is a real treat to be talking with Josh about this book, his temporary return to his intellectual home and to explore so many of these interesting political autobiographies.

So Josh, when I think about political autobiography, my mind immediately goes to Alan Clark's diaries.

The conservative MP whose autobiography revealed that he had been a Nazi, that he'd helped supply arms to Iraq and lied about it, and that he'd had an affair with the judge's wife and both of his daughters.

Does a good political autobiography have to allow the subject to risk others thinking worse of them?

Before I take that bait, which I'm looking forward to taking, I would also just thank you, Colin, and everybody who makes this series the important component of our intellectual life that it is.

Alan Clark, I was wondering a few days ago how our line of questioning would begin tonight, Andrew.

I think if we're beginning with adultery and Nazi sympathisers, it's all up from here, I think.

LAUGHTER It does require a willingness to be vulnerable, a willingness to take risks, either real risks or imagined risks.

Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment...

I'm not suggesting for a moment that Stephen Flynn's performance before the committee was Alan Clark-esque in its flippant state.

It wasn't.

But, you know, you don't give a hostage to fortune.

the ideas and there's some violence.

It's more like an Alan Clark kind of scum vibe or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, and just so you know, I don't want to spoil too much, but this gang does get some comeuppance to it.

And listen, it's a brilliant record, but it was not a big hit.

And so at that point, Alan Clark said, OK, we've tried all that stuff, let's go back to Jennifer Eccles and, you know, fake whistling on tracks and all that kind of stuff.

And then Graham left.

And I actually saw them...