Clive Myrie is, by common consent, a nice bloke. Television news is a notoriously b**chy world. The stag-like rivalries of yesterday\u2019s alpha-males have not gone away now they\u2019ve largely been replaced by women \u2013 they\u2019ve just got more complicated. But Clive stands out.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to say you\u2019ll never hear a word against him; that would be expecting too much. But even those beside themselves with envy at his current success struggle to find anything bad to say. That, believe me, is one step from sainthood in New Broadcasting House. And perhaps a problem when it comes to his new role as question master on Mastermind.<\/p>\n
The whole idea behind the BBC programme is surely a kind of competitive torture. It depends on your definition of cruelty, of course, but the whole thing: the long walk, the deadly drumbeat (the music is actually called Approaching Menace), the spotlit chair, the rapid-fire questions, are all meant to crank up the pressure to see if you\u2019ll crack. I know. I\u2019ve been in that chair on Celebrity Mastermind. I\u2019ve never been so nervous.<\/p>\n
It was dreamt up by a BBC producer called Bill Wright, who\u2019d been an RAF gunner, taken prisoner in the war. He wanted to make it feel like being interrogated by the Gestapo. The three opening questions \u2013 Name? Occupation? Specialist subject? \u2013 were meant to echo the three questions prisoners of war were allowed to answer \u2013 Name? Rank? Number? Perhaps even the catchphrase \u201cI\u2019ve started so I\u2019ll finish\u201d was the equivalent of \u201cFor you, Tommy, the war is over\u201d.<\/p>
Almost 50 years ago, the first question master, Magnus Magnusson, was actually called \u201cthe Interrogator\u201d. He was encouraged to be stern; fair, but as chilly as somebody who came from Iceland could manage. When John Humphrys took over, he was warned against any appearance of softness.<\/p>\n
Clive sees it differently. \u201cI hope that I\u2019m a friendly face when the contestants walk in,\u201d he says. He\u2019s even going to wish them luck. When I ask him whether he shouldn\u2019t be forbidding, he tells me I have it all \u201ccompletely wrong\u2026 the questions are forbidding, the chair is forbidding. I\u2019m not going to be forbidding. I\u2019m there as a friend and we could, potentially, have a drink afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the audience don\u2019t want to see contestants \u201csquirming\u201d. Yes, it should be a tussle, or \u201cbattle royale\u201d, as he puts it, \u201cbut that is more likely if I\u2019m smiling\u201d.<\/p>\n
He cuts a dashing figure in the half-deserted palace of meeting rooms that is today\u2019s Broadcasting House \u2013 olive green T-shirt, pressed khaki jeans, baseball boots, trademark brown chiffon-ish scarf \u2013 all carefully co-ordinated and the kind of outfit that\u2019s probably called \u201ccombat chic\u201d in the fashionable corner of Islington in north London where he lives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a long way from Bolton where his Jamaican parents settled in the 1960s. Clive was one of seven children in a family he describes as working-class. Certainly, both parents had jobs in factories, although his mother (her Jamaican teaching qualifications weren\u2019t then considered sufficient for her to teach in the UK) became a \u201cbrilliant\u201d seamstress, running a whole department making clothes for Mary Quant and Marks & Spencer. They ended up owning two houses and putting five children through university.<\/p>\n
Clive had wanted to be a broadcast journalist since first catching sight of Trevor McDonald on ITN \u201cfor obvious reasons\u201d. His parents wanted him to do something more serious, so he studied law at Sussex University. But when he graduated, he applied for the BBC\u2019s news trainee scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m assuming they saw potential,\u201d he says. \u201cBeing a Black man in a white world was never a problem for me. What was an issue was the sense that people might think, \u2018He\u2019s only there because he\u2019s Black.\u2019 There are a hell of a lot of public-school white men here \u2013 some of my closest friends were picked precisely because of that. What matters is the final product of this sausage machine\u2026 If it\u2019s a fat, beefy, Cumberland that is tasty \u2013 what\u2019s the problem? And I haven\u2019t done too badly, have I?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""Clive\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/mastermind-s19-clive-myrie-d4a6c54.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"mastermind-s19-clive-myrie\"\\"")
<\/div>No, indeed. He\u2019s had an enviable career, thanks to ability, hard work \u2013 and good timing. He was lucky that, when he\u2019d done his early stints in local radio and regional TV, the world opened up in front of him. The launch of its 24-hour TV news channel in 1997 meant the BBC needed lots of low-cost reporters based abroad, rather than the handful of gold-plated TV foreign correspondents when the Ten o\u2019Clock News was all that mattered.<\/p>\n
So Clive, young and relatively inexperienced, went off to Tokyo, Los Angeles, Washington, Paris, Brussels, eventually reporting from 70-odd countries, with more than his fair share of rough stuff in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. It probably helped to be blessed with a wife who has a portable career (Catherine renovates antiques), as well as not having children.<\/p>\n
After nearly two decades abroad he came home to be a presenter on the BBC News channel \u2013 partly, he says, because they didn\u2019t want to become another expat couple who had \u201cgone native\u201d, partly for the money (\u201cFunny how you get paid a lot less to be shot at in Afghanistan than sitting in a studio reading autocue,\u201d he notes), and partly to give the latter stages of his career \u201csome oomph\u201d.<\/p>\n
And now, at 56, someone has lit the blue touchpaper. He\u2019s all over the bulletins on the main channels. He did a series of reports for the Ten o\u2019Clock News on the COVID crisis in the Royal London Hospital that were a bit too emotional for me. (He thinks a reporter should \u201ccare\u201d; I prefer them dispassionate. Maybe it\u2019s a generational thing.) But they were beautifully produced mini-documentaries, made to show how it felt to work, and suffer, there. The impact was profound. The Royal Television Society named him Television Journalist of the Year, praising his \u201cmeasured\u201d commentaries, and, on top of that, made him Network Presenter of the Year as well. After 35 years in TV, he\u2019s an overnight success.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s brought a lot of hate. Racist emails, vitriolic messages to the BBC switchboard, cards with crude drawings on the front and even death threats. \u201cYes, it\u2019s upsetting, but I feel an overwhelming sense of pity for these people. The idea they\u2019re superior to me because of their skin colour is so pathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""Clive\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/mastermind-s19-clive-myrie-bbc-62ce15c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"mastermind-s19-clive-myrie-bbc\"\\"")
<\/div>He clearly has a stake in the cultural politics of race but treads very warily. He writes of \u201cshaking his head\u201d when he comes across cases of discrimination in the States, for instance. Personal journalism, but the comment is carefully calibrated. With me, he passionately defends \u201ctaking the knee\u201d. \u201cPeople misunderstand what it means. It\u2019s got b****r all to do with Black Lives Matter. It\u2019s a gesture of humility, a moral gesture of shared humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, when I ask him if he\u2019d take the knee, he refuses to say. \u201cBecause I work for the BBC. I\u2019m not supposed to have a view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few expected him to get the Mastermind job. The odds were on a woman, with Samira Ahmed (a Celebrity Mastermind winner) seen as the frontrunner, just ahead of BBC Breakfast presenter, Naga Munchetty. Ahmed would have been even more of a favourite if it had been known she had been secretly contracted as Mastermind\u2019s understudy, to take over if anything happened to John Humphrys.<\/p>\n
In the event, it\u2019s not clear who else, if anybody, was even auditioned. Clive did his on Zoom, all togged up in one of his Armani suits, from his study at home. That\u2019s where he\u2019s been practising, trying to get the words and pace right.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now recorded 28 programmes in six days (Clive\u2019s a victim of Humphrys\u2019s workaholism).<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d be flagging on the fifth show of the day,\u201d he says, \u201cbut then you see the contestants. It\u2019s their Olympics, the top of their mountain, and the energy level goes right back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the nice guys. A rarity, according to his old Foreign Editor who told me if he wrote a book about managing reporters and presenters it would be called They All Turn Out Monsters in the End. \u201cClive was the exception,\u201d he says, \u201cenough ego to be a good reporter, not enough ego to be a pain in the a**e.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clive, himself, says he has no ambitions beyond Mastermind, and what he has achieved. \u201cIn the beginning, I didn\u2019t want my colour to define who I am, now I don\u2019t give a stuff. But I do hope when the viewing public see me, they don\u2019t think, \u2018It\u2019s that Black guy, Clive Myrie.\u2019 They\u2019re just going to say, \u2018That\u2019s Clive Myrie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mastermind returns to BBC Two on Monday 23rd August at 7:30pm.\u00a0<\/strong>Check out more of our Entertainment<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The broadcaster aims to bring some heart to BBC Two’s intimidating quiz show. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3400,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/08\/clive-myrie-on-his-journalism-career-and-striving-to-be-a-friendly-face-on-mastermind.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The broadcaster aims to bring some heart to BBC Two's intimidating quiz show.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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