THE REUNION

It’s good that The Reunion series is back on Radio 4 to replace Desert Island Discs. The formula is a simple one: the excellent presenter Sue McGregor convenes a group of individuals associated with an event.  Yesterday’s broadcast was about Private Eye. One assumes that Richard Ingrams, Barry Fantoni and Chris Booker and those still alive still do meet as the Lord Gnome’s organ and its organists were highly sociable, the regular lunches at the Coach and Horses pub attracted such well-known journalist as Nigel Dempster and Jeffrey Bernard. So the programme was probably not a reunion.

The Eye was always a curious entity. It was anti-establishment but virtually all the founders were public school-educated at Shrewsbury and a regular feature was the public school notice of term times in obscure Latin. At its best, its satirical humour deserves to take its place alongside Hogarth, Pope and Swift such as Mrs Wilson’s Diary and Dear Bill. It had the brilliant investigative journalist Paul Foot but, unlike Harold Evans at The Sunday Times with thalidomide, they cannot claim to many earth-shaking scoops.

Richard Ingrams articulates in a public school drawl. He was a great journalist with a feel for a story but he never really trained on to edit a major newspapers in the way that say Rosie Boycott went from Spare Rib to the Daily Express. Perhaps he never wanted to compromise himself before a real Lord Gnome.

Sue McGregor brought up their satirising of feminism, there was regular column by Glenda Slag. Nowadays they would not do this and it is to Sue McGregor’s credit that instead of beating the feminist drum that so many do on Radio 4 do she referred to this unemotionally to be told  Private Eye was non-PC. Too many of the key players – e.g. Peter Cook and Willie Rushton have passed – and in an Internet  age it all seems bit passé now.

I must also mention The Last Word. On the Rust we pride ourselves in obituaries that tell a life how it’s led. On The Last Word they did not pull their punches on Joao Havelange as the main contributor Andrew Jennings said he was a corrupt man whilst acknowledging the role he played in taking FIFA from a small-time football body to a global force. The programme is the best most revealing obit programme around.