So, now we know the identity of the mystery TV presenter. It will be trebles all round at that great bastion of respectability, The Sun, whose owner, the dirty digger Rupert Murdoch, will be utterly thrilled by the turn of events. To him, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of the BBC which he has always seen as an obstacle to world domination. From what little I know – and to be fair, it is very little – this is a tragic story of a life and career unraveling before our very eyes.
The hatemongers are out in force now. Already I’m reading that apparently the presenter is a wrong ‘un and is only pretending to be sick. That’s the level it’s now come down to. Everything that’s wrong with our country in a nutshell. Let me address the suggestion that the presenter is somehow feigning illness to avoid being called out for his behaviour, which to date we have only seen allegations about.
No one ever accuses people of pretending to suffer from cancer. That’s because someone who has cancer has been diagnosed by an expert, who will be a doctor. When someone has a mental illness, it will have been diagnosed by an expert, another doctor; probably a psychiatrist. You don’t walk into a surgery or hospital, pretend to be ill and then trick someone into giving you a false diagnosis because it doesn’t work like that. Suggestions like these are very offensive to those of us who do have mental health conditions and have spent a lifetime trying to deal with them.
The presenter is now in hospital for the “foreseeable future” because – and I shall write this very slowly for those of you who can’t read very fast – he is very seriously ill. We can only speculate, which helps no one, but a serious bout of depression that ends up in prolonged hospitalisation suggests he must have been close to being sectioned.
The presenter’s family has requested privacy and I hope they get it. But we all know, don’t we, that now the man has been outed, by his wife, that this one will run and run. Doubtless, at some point, The Sun will have to come clean about what it knows and the people who have made the various allegations will have to identify themselves. Were they paid by The Sun? If so, how much? Otherwise, where are we headed? Trial by media? That’s exactly what has happened to the TV presenter concerned.
Looking at the presenter, you’d never have guessed he suffered from severe bouts of depression, would you? Therefore, argue some people, he can’t have had it. I’m sorry to bring this back to me, but fuck it: there have been times when I felt so bad, I couldn’t face doing anything, being with anyone, leaving the house and Christ knows what else. I cannot pretend to have been a top performer at work – ask anyone who ever worked with me – but I always gave it everything, even when I was at my worst. Us nutters are the best actors in the world. The TV presenter was always at the top of his game, the go to broadcaster for major events, all while his brain was utterly scrambled. I don’t see that as a reason to doubt the narrative surrounding him at all.
If the presenter has done something wrong, doubtless there will be consequences. His career is to all intents and purposes over. I see nothing to celebrate at all. But then, I’m a little old fashioned and I never celebrate tragedy.
Everyone’s black dog is different. I did some very stupid things, made bad decisions, treated people badly but, to date, I have not ended up on the front page of The Sun.
In the end, I am very sad about the levels of hate this story has generated. #BeKind was only a passing moment in time and something not everyone meant or even believed in. I feel terrible about this story. I can only imagine how the presenter feels.
