Londoner’s Diary: Morgan and Farage square up for battle of the broadcasters

Piers Morgan and Nigel Farage
Piers Morgan and Nigel Farage

AS Rupert Murdoch’s new Piers Morgan-fronted television channel talkTV prepares for launch later this year, other broadcasters are watching closely, particularly GB News, from where staff have been poached. A source at GB News told us: “There is worry about the whole thing”, because “people are being pinched”. But they went on: “We’re confident we’re better, as we’re up and running and have the momentum.”

GB News, which launched last year, has struggled with low ratings, though an evening programme fronted by Nigel Farage has drawn a committed audience. However, Farage will soon battle for ratings with a nightly show fronted by Morgan. Ex-GMB presenter Morgan is reportedly being paid as much as £50million over three years for the role, as well as writing for Murdoch’s newspapers.

Tom Newton Dunn is set for an evening political show, while the channel is advertising for staff for a satirical programme. GB News is in Paddington, while talkTV will be at News UK’s headquarters in London Bridge. Let the battle commence...

Prize poet: Covid helped me write

Poet Joelle Taylor attends the T.S. Elliot Prize winners announcement at The Wallace Collection
Poet Joelle Taylor attends the T.S. Elliot Prize winners announcement at The Wallace Collection
Dave Benett

SPOKEN WORD poet Joelle Taylor shed a tear at winning the £25,000 TS Eliot prize for her collection C+nto at The Wallace Collection last night, and told us it was “vindication for a life’s work”, as well as a victory for “butch women and the LGBT community”. Taylor, right, thinks she may not have won without lockdown, as “it forced me to speak to a blank piece of paper”. Head judge Glyn Maxwell said the pandemic gave many the “poetry experience” of solitude and time, and wondered if it had made “poets of some people”. Time will tell.

If only Tarrant would cough up

Chris Tarrant
Chris Tarrant
Getty Images

ORIGINAL Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant is writing a memoir, It’s Not a Proper Job. Tarrant tells us he will be giving his view on the notorious case of Charles Ingram, the “coughing major” who was convicted of cheating the programme of its £1 million prize. But Tarrant says he won’t be discussing more recent episodes of the show, which he left in 2014 and which is now back on air with replacement presenter Jeremy Clarkson. “I have not written about the revived show as I am not involved and can have no perspective on that,” Tarrant explains. If only there was a secret signal he could give us…

---

Fat Tony's Clean Time Birthday At Il Borro Tuscan Bistro
Courtney Love, DJ Fat Tony and Claire Sweeney attend Fat Tony’s clean time birthday at Il Borro Tuscan Bistro
Dave Benett

COURTNEY LOVE partied with DJ Fat Tony last night in Mayfair as he honoured 15 years of sobriety. “Grateful doesn’t cut it,” Fat Tony said. Over at the Wallace Collection in Marylebone, poets Raymond Antrobus, Victoria Kennefick, Glyn Maxwell and Hannah Lowe joined to watch Joelle Taylor (see story, left) win the TS Eliot prize.

SW1A

THE latest revelations about alleged lockdown-busting Downing Street parties have turned Tories against one another. After Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, criticised the government, his fellow Tory Michael Fabricant MP leapt to Downing Street’s defence: “Who are YOU?” What catty amnesia.

---

GEORGE EUSTICE has revealed one of the “most frustrating” things when it comes to working in politics: “You often don’t get credit for things you’ve done,” the Environment Secretary tells The House magazine. But Eustice adds: “There’s no good complaining about it, because it goes with the territory.” Stoical.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in