I can't believe I missed this – a right old tear-up on Radio 4's MidWeek progamme between Darcus Howe and Joan Rivers.
Actually I can believe it. MidWeek (which follows the best daily news outlet on radio, TV, print or Web, the Today programme) at 9am is usually so incredibly drab that I leap up to turn it off every Wednesday.
But not this time. Darcus Howe was on the show to talk about a new documentary about his relationship with his son that he's barely ever met. I have to say I've always found Darcus Howe slightly irritating. In 99 percent of cases he is talking about race and racism (he is black), and he always but always edits it to make it look as though everyone that isn't black is racist towards black people – whether they know it or not.
In fact when he comes up against someone who isn't racist he usually does everything in his power to find something that he can pin on them and then go “Aha! Told you so. Racist!”
Anyway, he did the same thing to Joan Rivers. Big mistake. She was so incensed at the implication of being racist she lost her rag, at one point calling him a “son of a bitch”. Not only that but she went into one about how rich it was for Mr Howe to do a programme about him and his son when it was him that left the mother – and a previous wife as well.
Great stuff. You can see the BBC story on it here complete with an audio link to the outburst. The full programme will be given a permanent link next week, but it can be found on the MidWeek website.
I suspect sadly though that MidWeek will immediately return to its tedious home. As an indication, the guest that was used as a buffer in the argument was a plant photographer. Now do you get the picture?
