Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

Jonathan Coad and British TV’s most catastrophic interview

Jonathan Coad and Matt Hancock (Composite via Alamy, Getty) 
issue 11 March 2023

‘Coad. Coad.’ I wracked my brain. Distant bells began to tinkle as I turned the name over. As though performing a solo game of charades, I said to myself ‘Sounds like?’ And I landed on it.

Jonathan Coad used to be known only to a small band of aficionados. Happily today he is almost a household name. This is because of his participation in what must be regarded, by some stretch, as the most catastrophic interview ever conducted on British television. And I have not forgotten about Michael Howard, Prince Andrew or Cathy Newman.

This week Mr Coad was on GB News being questioned about Matt Hancock, WhatsApp, Isabel Oakeshott and the various other intrigues preoccupying us as our nation goes down the swannee. Right at the start, Coad was introduced as a lawyer who ‘was recently asked to act for Matt Hancock’. Mr Coad – who rocked back and forth throughout the interview – opened menacingly by saying that this introduction was ‘disappointing’.

Written by
Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray is associate editor of The Spectator and author of The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason, among other books.

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