It's been a bruising few weeks for the DUP.

Edwin Putz is working his notice already, barely a month into the job.

Worse still, the man he beat to the crown has just managed to snatch it away from him when he wasn't looking.

Geoffrey Donaldson looks set to be confirmed as the new leader since he was the only candidate for the job.

Many now see as one great big poison chalice.

So how did Edwin Puts manage to lose the prize before he'd even got his feet under the table at DUPHQ?

And how did Sir Geoffrey hold his nerve to win through in the end when it looked like he'd missed out on his last opportunity to be crowned the leader of unionism?

Mark Simpson, you've known both men for

many years and you've followed this drama at close quarters over the last number of weeks. First of all,

when did you realise it was all going wrong for Edwin Putz? When I got an early morning phone call from someone very high in the DUP, Mark, who I phone

all the time, but he never phones me. Journalists will know what that's like. You suddenly

say, something must be up here and it was. So that was last Thursday morning, around about

half past eight. Shortly after Edwin Putz had confirmed on Good Morning Ulster, he was going to nominate Paul Given for First Minister.

This senior person within the DUP that doesn't normally phone me knew I was presenting talk back that day and said you may have a big story on your hands because he said that if Edwin Putz nominated, he would be toast.

I didn't quite believe this.

As you know, there are a number of WhatsApp groups here at the BBC

involving our political people.

I put a message in, I'll not read it all out,

because I named the person, and I just said,

it looks as if it may all go wrong for Edwin puts today with this nomination,

but I said my final line was, this might be

a bum steer. As we know, it wasn't a bum steer. We had that puts nomination, and within

...