The slipper and the Ross (From Bournemouth Echo)

The slipper and the Ross

8:00am Monday 19th July 2010 in

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IF someone offered me millions to be on BBC TV and radio, I’d start slipping it into my bucket before you could say “outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money, sir”.

That’s what Jonathan Ross did for years... but at a price of part of his popularity.

Ross and I differ in three ways. Firstly, he can afford a swanky Purbeck farmhouse on top of his Hampstead home. And I can’t.

Secondly, if someone were to pay me the mighty sums he received, I would have been far too cautious to slip up with a silly prank.

Thirdly, I would be a lousy chat show host utterly devoid of talent… and JR wasn’t.

I’ve had a pop at the smug smartipants in the past, regarding that radio jape with Russell Brand. It was cruel. On top of that, I found his middle-aged leering at young female guests toe-curling and his occasionally sexually explicit questions, such as that to David Cameron about his schoolboy thoughts regarding Mrs Thatcher, well, sleazy.

He was out there alone in no-man’s land, sniping where slips can be costly... but his sense of fun was contageous and his interviewing, on radio, usually fascinating.

Now he’s hung up his (large) hat, having left both the BBC and a gaping hole there.

Ross, for all his faults, had an edgy irreverence that pricked the pompous as effectively as any BBC interviewer on programmes like Radio 4’s Today.

I wish him well when his ITV series starts.

Would I like to see him back at the Beeb? Yes.

But not at the £6 million a year salary he was paid. That was the grossest joke of all.