Splashed!: A Life From Print to Panorama by Tom Mangold

Author:Tom Mangold [Mangold, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, political science, World, General, Personal Memoirs
ISBN: 9781785901935
Google: q0VMDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2016-11-08T20:27:15.126108+00:00

Shortly after Glenwyn’s all-too-brief tenure, a new reporter, Martin Bashir, arrived. He was young, enthusiastic, intensely friendly, humble and only too keen to please. His arrival, I’m ashamed to say, went largely unnoticed by us big boys, now strutting our stuff again like the old days.

Martin came to my attention rather melodramatically one evening in a pub at the bottom of Wood Lane in Shepherd’s Bush. In front of a handful of drinking chums, he came up to me, formally introduced himself and said: ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt your drink, Mr Mangold, but I just wanted to say that my brother died very recently. I was with him on those horrible last days and as he lay dying, he lifted himself up and said: “Martin, I want you to try and join Panorama if you can, and if you can I want you to emulate everything that Tom Mangold has done, learn from him, copy him, and like Mangold you will become a great reporter.” And now,’ continued Bashir, ‘I’ll leave you in peace.’

I was stunned. Very little reduces me to silence. Anyone who is nice to me usually provokes tears of gratitude, but such flattery, and in public, was just overwhelming. I asked Martin to stay for a drink, introduced him to some of our colleagues on the programme, and made a mental note to look after this bright young man and help him achieve his ambition.

I went out of my way, where I could, to introduce him to some of the quaint old Spanish customs of Panorama, while also advising him to ignore what remained of Birtism.

In mid-November 1995, I was on a train in Wales heading to an assignment when I heard on my miniature radio the news that Martin had secured the interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. I dismounted at the next station to telephone Martin to congratulate him. I was over the moon that Panorama, through this young man, had managed to, in the argot of our trade, get the biggest get Panorama had ever had.

Shortly after the interview (a triumph) had been aired, some of us learned that in connection with achieving the interview, Martin had contrived to have two bank account statements forged, using the talents of a BBC graphics artist, and this for reasons quite unknown.

A tsunami now descended on the offices and corridors of Panorama as the story was quickly leaked to the national press. An ever lengthening production line of internal enquiries began. Some people, myself included, were hauled out of the canteen halfway through their limp salads and stale fruit, to appear in front of drum-head courts martial upstairs to give evidence.

At one stage, a somewhat rotund BBC lady, who was then deputy head of something or other, and a rather self-important figure, was brought in, and patrolled the corridors like a plastic police-woman, presumably to see or hear if anyone was phoning their Fleet Street contacts.

It was alleged at the time that the forged bank statements

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.