I was interviewed yesterday for BBC1's Look North (North East and Cumbria).
The item was about smoking in parks but when I arrived to record the interview at the BBC studios in Cambridge I was asked, "Are you here to talk about the riots?"
For a split second I was tempted to say "Yes" and do a completely different interview.
Instead I made the point, on camera, that in the middle of a financial crisis, with thousands of people rioting in the streets, it seemed absurd to be talking about smoking in parks. "Politicians and local councillors," I said, "need to get their priorities right."
Sadly that and other comments ("Are they going to ban obese people from parks too?") were edited out.
Click here to see the report. It starts about ten minutes in but is only available online until 6.00pm today.
PS. Eagle-eyed viewers who know me well may spot that I wasn't wearing glasses for the interview.
Moments before we began recording the producer asked me to take them off because they were causing a distracting reflection.
Now, without my glasses I can't see a thing – it's all a blur – so what you see is a man with hugely impaired vision sitting on a stool and squinting in the direction of a remote controlled camera several feet away.
Ah, yes, the glamour of television. You can't beat it.