Changing definitions – Who benefits? - The back story to Tom’s interview

Warm work

Some of you may have enjoyed watching Tom answer questions in bright sunshine against a dramatic backdrop of Rome's roofs. But life is one big show, and this was part of it.

In the days when the media were genuinely curious and did their job, Tom was interviewed several times by different media outlets to offer a critical perspective on what was happening.

Some broadcasters preferred to film with a library backdrop, signalling that the interviewee was a serious scientist or a bookworm. Others liked the backdrop of a clinic with white coats everywhere, the idea being white coats = science.

And then we come to the Nordic interviewers (and I include the BBC in this). They liked the idea of a background of St Peter’s or the Colosseum. Some welcomed the latter as they would have loved to feed Tom to the lions.

This one was shot on a rooftop in July 2009. The journalist was in a nice, cool studio somewhere north, and yours truly was on a 42°C rooftop. The cameraman was under cover in the shade,…