Trevor Phillips gets off to an error-strewn start on Sky News
There’s been a change at that hinge hour in weekend current-affairs broadcasting. Sophy Ridge has migrated away from her regular berth and branched out to weekdays, to be replaced by her holiday cover. Hence Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips (Sky News): out with the old, in the with older.
Phillips wouldn’t deny that categorisation. When he interviewed the 81-year-old Jonathan Aitken in this inaugural programme, he referred to them both as “people of our vintage”. Phillips is 70 this year: would it be ageist to point out the odd Bidenism that stumbled off his tongue? Rishi Sunak was described as having been Prime Minister in 2019, and there were references to “Michael Gave” and “Rachel Reed”. Guest panellist Craig Oliver was mildly surprised to be addressed as “Clare”.
Presenting live TV is no picnic, of course, although at least half of this wasn’t strictly live as the first three interviews were all recorded beforehand. Thus it felt like less than a drumroll moment that Jeremy Hunt, while making much of the fact that it was Phillips’s big weekend, had prioritised an engagement with Laura Kuenssberg at 9am. As had his fellow guest, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.
The newish studio has a panoramic backdrop of the Palace of Westminster, with Sky logos running along the river balustrade like pitchside hoardings. Behind the statutory three guests, a blue and yellow panel looked like a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine. The actual panel had a usual-suspects aura: Alastair Campbell, sitting next to Rachel Johnson, had his first go at her brother within seconds. “Off he goes,” she sighed, later offering an open goal when proposing that “all politicians spend some time in prison”.
There was a tongue-tied and insightless interview with Andrew Morton, also pre-recorded, before Aitken arrived with dog collar peeping out of Thatcher-blue tunic to talk about God and guilt and many things in between. It’s surely a problem for the programme – indeed, for the formulaic jab-and-parry of political broadcasting in general – when a conversation with an octogenarian with no role in public life provided the most vital and honest insights.
