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Laura Kuenssberg’s new show falls apart on the launch pad

If there was a winner, it's Joe Lycett, who walked away with plenty of material for his next show

Joe Lycett (Credit: BBC)

Well, that was…interesting. The BBC’s flagship political interview show, hosted first by Sir David Frost then by Andrew Marr, relaunched this morning under Laura Kuenssberg. On paper, she had it all sorted: she secured an interview with leadership frontrunner Liz Truss after she had pulled out of one with Nick Robinson just days before. It was a decent interview, as you’d expect from a former BBC political editor. It felt like the first interview of her premiership.



If there was a winner, it’s Joe Lycett, who walked away with plenty of material for his next show

But it ended to the whooping of applause from a comedian, Joe Lycett, a member of the show’s three-person panel, who seemed to regard his own inclusion as a joke. ‘Really excited to be on this new version of Would I Lie To You,’ he had tweeted earlier – a signal of his plan to hijack the format, and send it up.



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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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