Do we want funny politicians?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt Forde set out on a mission to humanise politics with his podcast the Political Party. He’s interviewed some of the biggest politicians of our time: Tony Blair, Nigel Farage and even Tommy Robinson. But there’s a thin line between humanising politicians and doing their PR job for them. In the week that a politician known for his jokes became prime minister, we ask how much does comedy feature in modern politics? Can it be a tool for something darker, and is satire now just the pursuit of smug elites? Producers: Lucy Hancock, Duncan Barber and Philly Beaumont. Mixed by Nicolas Raufast. Editor: Harriet Noble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:06.6	Hello, I'm Matthew Price. This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4. 4. Today do we want funny politician.
0:14.0	I know what I think.
0:27.0	Hello, yes, your new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, introducing this new episode of
0:38.9	this new episode of Beyond Today. He good, isn't he? This week we got a politician known for his jokes as Prime Minister. That wasn't him. That wasn't Boris Johnson. That was Matt Ford, who is our guest today.
0:53.0	Every now and then we do an episode where we spend time getting to know one person.
0:57.0	And I really liked Matt when he came in a couple of days ago.
1:01.0	He's a nice guy with an engaging smile. He's got a loud laugh.
1:06.4	Matt is a comedian. He's about to do 20 or maybe even some more shows I can't quite remember at the Edinburgh Festival.
1:13.7	He's written for comedy shows on channel 4 and the BBC.
1:17.1	He absolutely loves politics.
1:21.2	Matt joined the Labour Party when he was 15, and then years later he became a policy advisor to Gordon Brown.
1:29.0	He left the party when Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership.
1:31.7	He's a Tony Blair supporter through and through a
1:34.2	real Blairite and Matt's got his own podcast haven't we all and on that
1:40.7	podcast he's interviewed more politicians and people on the margins of politics
1:44.9	than probably should be healthy. He's spoken to Jess Phillips, Tony Blair, George Osbourn,
1:49.9	Nigel Farage, even Tommy Robinson.
1:53.6	We'll find out how he justifies that a little bit later on.
1:56.6	Now all that's in his bio, but during our chat I started to fill in the gaps about
2:01.4	who he is, what drives him and how where he grew up started his
2:07.7	interest in politics and helps to explain where Matt Ford thinks our politics is now going wrong.
	...

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