John Simpson on 60 years with the BBC

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Kiya.

Shane Coleman (0:09)

Now we're joined on the line by World Affairs Editor of the BBC, John Simpson, who is celebrating 60 years of service at the BBC. John Simpson, first of all, congratulations. 60 years with the BBC is an extraordinary achievement. The world was a very different place in 1966

I mean, England were world champions.

John Simpson (0:32)

Yes, England were world champions and haven't been since. And it was an extraordinarily different place when, you know, Britain had a different position in the world. The United States was a different kind of country. Russia was seen to be the great threat. Well, perhaps not everything has changed. China was still under the boot of Chairman Mao and every single person in that entire huge country had to wear the same kind of clothes.

You know, I mean, there's endless ways in which it was different and not all that many ways in which it was similar.

Shane Coleman (1:20)

I was going to ask you if you've loved Every Minute of An End. It wasn't even formulated in my head when I realized that was a ridiculous question. Because you, I mean, you've obviously had an extraordinary career, but you've been through incredibly challenging times, not least in Lebanon where you were abducted and tortured.

John Simpson (1:41)

Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to say that when they were doing that to me, I was thinking this is a great job and I'm enjoying it. But, you know, quite quickly afterwards, I don't know how long afterwards, a day or so, I felt that, yeah, I was so lucky to be, well, to be alive at that stage because they put me through a mock execution, which seemed to be real and genuine until the click of the gun.

But I have been amazingly, amazingly lucky. I mean, you know, far more than I ought to have been. And I mean, apart from anything else, and I'm not just saying this to you in order to ingratiate myself, but it's enabled me to see into different countries. And I think almost entirely, almost always learn to love them. And Ireland is one of the chief things. I was the BBC correspondent there from, I think, 1972 to 1975, which absolutely gave me a real basis for loving Ireland. And I've been back to live there for stretches ever since. And that's one example. I mean, actually, Lebanon, where various unpleasant things happened to me over the years, but that's another example, another place I mean, I would so love to come back and live in Ireland for a bit. And, you know, Lebanon, the same, South Africa, these are many other countries.

I've learned absolutely to love them. Yeah, sometimes nasty things happen, but, you know, you get over that.

Shane Coleman (3:37)

Is it true you called your abductors in Lebanon, you call them W-A-N-K-E-E-O-R-S to their face?

John Simpson (3:47)

No S on it, the other guy pulled the trigger.

Was, watched me as I sort of stood up, rather surprised, still to be alive. And I, you know, I had a bad time. I'd been deeply, deeply humiliating. There's nothing more humiliating, I now know, than to be tortured. And I felt really, really bad. And I, I mean, the The worst thing was, I knew that I, they couldn't speak English. I mean, that was the ludicrous thing about it. So it didn't matter what I said. I could have given them the BBC Director General's inside leg measurements, and they wouldn't have done anything, you know, wouldn't have known what I was talking about. But I did feel deeply humiliated. And just to be able to say this guy who spoke a little bit of English, you know, in England, we call you, can I say the word?

Shane Coleman (4:45)

You can say the word, you can definitely say the word.

John Simpson (4:47)

I can say it, that's great. It wasn't always that way on Irish radio, or English radio, come to that. Yeah, I said that in England, we call people like you wankers.

And he seemed rather pleased with that, and repeated the word after. Of course, it's something I'd never dare to do now, because half the people that you meet in Beirut nowadays, been educated in British University.

Shane Coleman (5:17)

A couple of last things before I let you go, John. Is it true the former Prime Minister, when he was Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, actually whacked you in the stomach, punched you in the stomach?

John Simpson (5:28)

Absolutely, yes. It was my very first day out as a reporter.