Help choose London celebs for current events chats

October 12, 2005 6:05 AM

If you could bring together notable people living in or near London (celebrities, authors, politicians, etc.) to discuss current events, who would you choose and what would they discuss?

This is something I may actually get to do, but as an American without sattelite TV and more knowledge of current events than notable people, I'd like your help. Panels of no more than four please.

posted by putzface_dickman to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

You don't say whether this would be recorded or not, but I'll assume it is.

The BBC did this concept with "Dinner with Portillo", which I enjoyed immensely. Channel 4 had a more trendy version with yoounger semi-celebs who'd sit around smoking and getting drunk while talking about popular culture, but I forget its name.

These types of shows seem to work best when only a few talking points are laid down, and then they can wander around them, rather than having a defined structure of discussion. A casual setting also seems to work wonders, but is something that may seem odd to American viewers.

I'd personally choose some mixture of Stephen Fry, a most eloquent and well-known approximation of the wacky London gentry; Michael Portillo, ditto; Cherie Blair, highly unlikely she'd do something like this though; J G Ballard, extremely opinionated author and very insightful into social trends; Tracy Emin, worth a laugh; .. brain's gone dead now.. :)
posted by wackybrit at 6:22 AM on October 12, 2005

Response by poster: It is for television.
posted by putzface_dickman at 6:24 AM on October 12, 2005

Some of:

Will Self
Polly Toynbee
Nick Hornby
Simon Hoggart
Oona King
Jenny Eclair


Look at Newsnight Review for something that sounds like a similar format (just arts/culture, no politics) and generally has a good mix of panelists.
posted by cushie at 7:21 AM on October 12, 2005

Response by poster: Are there people, other than the usual suspects that you'd request? Wouldn't it be nice to get Clapton, or VS Naipaul to come into the city? What are your "sky's the limit" choices?
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:45 AM on October 12, 2005

I have always found David Bowie to be a great storyteller, and I can only imagine he would be a wonderful dinner guest. He would be hard to get, no?
posted by Richat at 10:07 AM on October 12, 2005

Oh, I don't know where he currently lives, so that might be a lame suggestion. Sorry.
posted by Richat at 10:08 AM on October 12, 2005

I wouldn't mind seeing Cherie Blair on something like this, but good luck with getting her and getting her to say anything off message. Portillo would be interesting, also Anne Widdecombe from the right wing politico side.
I nearly replied to this earlier and was going to say avoid Tracy Emin, she's seemed spectacularly dim on previous discussion programmes responding to the first bit of information put in front of her in churning out an opinion.

If you want a comedian I would suggest Mark Steel, lefty, well informed, funny.

Will Self always seems like he's only interested in looking laid back and cynical, so I suppose in some ways he's ideal as a representative of London but I would say, not great telly.

Perhaps you could consider a look at a list of UK public intellectuals, for example, this one presented a couple of years ago by prospect.
I'd be quite interested in James Lovelock, Lord Skidelsky and say George Monbiot with A.N.Other (perhaps Gordon Brown?) discussing global responses to Climate Change or something similar (global poverty issues?).
posted by biffa at 10:25 AM on October 12, 2005

Richard Dawkins lives in Oxford and has a well-informed, often scathing take on current events.
posted by equipoise at 11:05 AM on October 12, 2005