No laughing matter

I've witnessed some car crash interviews in my time but rarely one as bad as this.

Interviewed by Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning, Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister - was asked about the new Lower Thames crossing that has just been granted £590 million by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and will eventually cost an estimated £10 billion.

Clearly unprepared, she couldn't say where the crossing is going to be, or what it is going to cost. Embarrassed, and no doubt wishing she was anywhere else, she shuffled her notes and read some bland press release until an exasperated Ferrari said:

"I don't wish to be rude to you personally, but is there much point in continuing this conversation because you don't know where a bridge starts, you don't know where it ends, and you don't know how much it costs, so is there any point in continuing?"

I've done hundreds if not thousands of interviews and I've very rarely come away thinking, 'I absolutely nailed that'. However I can't think of any that have come close to being as bad as this.

The ‘good’ news is that, compared to an interview that goes well, you learn far more from a debacle like this.

For example, many years ago I was invited to talk about e-cigarettes on the BBC World Service. While I could talk about the subject in general terms, I lacked detailed knowledge so when I was asked to explain how an e-cigarette actually worked and how much they cost, I didn’t have an answer.

Thankfully I was rescued by a fellow guest, the former director of ASH, Clive Bates.

Now, I don't always seen eye to eye with the patron saint of vaping, but on that occasion he must have heard the hesitation in my voice because he stepped in and seamlessly answered the question himself.

I was (and still am) extremely grateful!

Since then I have done my best to be better prepared and foresee awkward questions, but it's impossible to predict every one. Sometimes you just have to admit your ignorance.

What you can't escape today are those social media clips that compound every misstep or slip of the tongue.

My biggest faux pas on air was to refer to a minister in the Blair government by the wrong name. Instead of calling him Stephen Ladyman, I said "Stephen Ladyboy".

It was a genuine mistake and I got away with it because it was broadcast on 18 Doughty Street, an internet TV station that very few people watched because it was years ahead of its time.

The irony is, I wish more people had seen it because what happened next still makes me laugh almost two decades later.

In fact, if I say so myself, the subsequent corpsing was up there with the famous 'Leg Over' incident with Jonathan Agnew and Brian Johnston on Test Match Special.

Presenter Iain Dale was the first to crack, then I joined in, setting him off again, and so it went on for what felt like several minutes.

Sadly the clip no longer exists because I would love to have it played at my funeral. It may not be my finest moment, but it's definitely the funniest.

Below: Watch Treasury minister Emma Reynolds on LBC. The fun starts from 40 seconds in.