Talking Point: Chimera

My pal and sometime collaborator Malcolm Brown was sorting out some old VHS tapes and came across this, an off-air recording of an ITN News studio discussion between Dr Bob Williamson and me. John Suchet was in the chair. The year was 1990 and the occasion was the screening of my ITV miniseries based on the novel.

We talked about my culpability or otherwise in sensationalising emergent gene therapy and I pled guilty, but with purpose. In a three-decades-on esprit d'escalier what I might have concluded was that we both wanted the same thing - Bob didn't want to see his science abused, and neither did I. Lively though it was, it was a discussion without acrimony and I believe we parted on good terms.

I was subsequently asked to argue the case again, in an event organised by the Wellcome Trust; there the post-event discussion in the hotel bar would lead, eventually, to the creation of pro-science drama Eleventh Hour.

I'd never seen the clip before. Didn't want to know how much of a dork I might seem on TV.

But I don't care what anybody says, I had GREAT HAIR.

(Apologies for the sound. If a better clip emerges, I'll switch it in)