A buccaneering public figure seeks to shrug off a string of recent public embarrassments only for new humiliations to wriggle from the woodwork. Heaven knows how recently departed GB News anchor Andrew Neil was able to put himself in the shoes of the embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But he’s gone above and beyond and achieved just that with Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road? (Channel 4).
Having somehow imagined what it feels like to be held in lofty disdain by the entire political and journalistic establishment, Neil delivered a chatty yet damning polemic about Johnson’s handling of allegations of lockdown parties and a “wine time” culture at Downing Street. And, as he outlined the many ways in which Johnson had let the country down, Neil visibly hummed with enthusiasm.
How strident he seemed. It was as if his disastrous tenure as founding chairman of GB News was a bad dream. Here he was starting a new career with Channel 4 – where he is expected to be unveiled as host of a weekly politics show – and visibly fizzing with fervour.
Neil was in his element as he sat down with the great and good of Westminster. However, this was as much about the opinions of the presenter as those of Johnson allies, past and present, including Michael Gove (present) and David Davis (very much past).
“As a journalist I’ve seen prime ministers come and go for half a century,” Neil declared at the outset. “I’ve never seen a collapse quite like this one. Boris Johnson isn’t done yet but his decline in just a few short weeks is unprecedented.” With the scandal still unfolding, the film was obviously a long way from definitive. It was also longer that it needed to be by a good 30 minutes and the padding was shameless.
There was lots of Neil driving around London, surveying landmarks with the gimlet eye of a steely newsman. And Channel 4 employed the irritating device of having Neil speak to a camera as he was filmed by another camera (you kept expecting this second camera to be filmed by a third camera).
Nor were they any bombshells. It was one of those documentaries where you were told what to think rather than presented with facts and invited to make up your own mind. The conclusion Neil reached was that, while Johnson clings to power for the time being, his premiership was on borrowed time.
“It began as a political crisis entirely of his own making,” Neil proclaimed in a damning sign off. “It has become a crisis of the British State.” It’s possible he had not felt this angry since learning GB News was giving Nigel Farage a nightly slot, complete with fake CGI pub.
