Humdrum Hancock is the perfect face for coronavirus

Readers of a certain vintage may remember that during the Falklands War a hitherto unknown official at the Ministry of Defence became something of a celebrity.

Ian McDonald, who passed away last year at the age of 82, was a dry-as-dust Whitehall official from the days when civil servants actively tried to avoid the limelight. And yet his monotone delivery as official spokesman at MoD press conferences turned him into a cult figure and ‘the voice’ of the war.

His calmness and uncanny ability to never offer an accidentally quotable soundbite alongside the factual but minimal information he conveyed was just what was required to keep the nation fixed on the task at hand. It is, therefore, meant as a compliment when I say that Health Secretary Matthew Hancock has put me in mind of Mr McDonald with his public performances this week on the subject of coronavirus.