Boris Johnson and Britain’s Covid-19 crisis
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has led his country’s efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. At one level it turned into a very personal mission. At the beginning of April he was hospitalised having tested positive for the virus and spent three days in intensive care fighting for his life. Jonny Dymond asks how this happened and what it reveals about Mr Johnson’s style of leadership and politics.
(Image: Boris Johnson as he gives a statement outside 10 Downing Street on 27 April 27 2020 on his return to work after being hospitalised with the Covid-19 virus. Credit: Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning. I'm sorry I've been away from my desk for much longer than I would have liked and I want to thank everybody who has to... |
| 0:10.0 | At the end of April in Spring Spring Sunshine, outside his Downing Street office and home, the British |
| 0:16.2 | Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his first appearance in more than two weeks. |
| 0:21.8 | But once again, I want to thank you the people of this country for the sheer grit and guts |
| 0:29.2 | you've shown and are continuing. |
| 0:31.1 | I'm Johnny Diamond and in this edition of assignment for the BBC World Service |
| 0:36.2 | I'll take you through the personal and political story of how his politics and |
| 0:45.0 | his politics and personality shaped Britain's response and how his illness |
| 0:52.0 | changed him and his beliefs. I'm making this program with the help of two |
| 0:57.1 | commentators. Andrew Jimson is the first man to write a biography of Boris Johnson. |
| 1:03.6 | He is, he says, on friendly terms with the Prime Minister, |
| 1:07.3 | but not part of his inner circle. |
| 1:09.9 | Were you surprised when the subject of your biography became Prime Minister? |
| 1:15.7 | I was taken aback when he became Prime Minister. |
| 1:19.3 | His whole career, it seemed highly unpredictable and there were long periods when he seemed to have very |
| 1:24.6 | little prospect of becoming a Prime Minister. |
| 1:28.0 | And Rachel Sylvester, a political columnist with The Times here in London who certainly before this crisis was not such |
| 1:35.6 | an admirer. |
| 1:36.6 | I've always been something of a Boris sceptic because I think he's incredibly cynical, |
| 1:41.6 | a little narcissistic, irresponsible, careless with other people, driven |
| 1:46.8 | by ambition really. |
| 1:49.6 | And it's never been quite clear why he wants to be |
... |
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