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  2. I dunno. This was BBC1 Saturday Night. It was what I expected. Not deep, just scratching the surface.
    Yes, there was a bit of “My songwriting with John” bits, but hey this is Paul McCartney, and it did remind me of how much he has done. Sheesh he is a great songwriter.
    Fair play to Idris for keeping the conversation going – if a little insubstantial.

    • Precisely. Anyone hoping for seaching questions that probed McCartney’s psyche was going to be disappointed. An hour of celeb chit-chat was what to expect and what we got. It was pleasant enough, and passed the time till MOTD started.

  3. When Elba said he hadn’t prepared and was just going to see how the conversation went in the intro, I had the first inkling that this could go horribly wrong. This was confirmed once he opened his mouth. McCartney has sat opposite Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Parky, David Frost, he’s an old hat at this game, so like the pro he is he started answering questions Elba hadn’t asked to make up for his interviewer’s lack of interview skills. But when Elba brought the guitar out and started playing guess the chord, with possibly the greatest songwriter of the past 60 years I could see the will to live disappearing from Macca’s eyes.

    I’d give my left tit to have an hour chatting to Paul McCartney.

    • Agreed. Given that this was billed by the Beeb as a world exclusive, surely it wasn’t beyond their editorial standards to find an interviewer who could have come up with something a little more incisive to discuss with McCartney than the merits of condensed milk?

        • I’d have preferred Jools Holland, that’s how frustrating it was watching Elba. I did find it intriguing how the conversation touched quite a few times on civil rights (“Blackberrrd”) the Fabs’ admirable sod-you to being told to play segregated crowds, his early love of Black musicians and his love of Derry And The Seniors. Almost as if someone had told him, “Paul, its 2020, we have to have a person of colour interview you and to connect with the kids, make sure you bring up Blackbird”.

  4. My objection mainly is that it was lazy. We all know that Macca is a well-honed interviewee and gives nothing away but I had at least hoped that the producer (and it was naturally co-produced by MPL so maybe my hopes were unrealistic) would have located the inter iew at Peasmarsh or the home studio and given us an insight into the process. Instead we had Elba reduced to a gibbering fan boy and Macca guessing a chord! My guess is that the channel bosses had heads in hands but had to stick it out somewhere. Macca of course has an album out. I bought it. I always do. I kind of get annoyed with him for thinking that he needs to do this sort of thing just to get a number one. He was in the Beatles after all. Not the Tremeloes. The fucking Beatles.

  5. Now we know Idris can sing, from his wittily informative adverts about sky film channels, I hope they had a little song and a tinkle on the joanna. Maybe that subtle and sensitive song about piano keys?

  6. I watched some of it, as I actually think his new album is really good in places, but if you don’t prepare for an interview with Macca then more fool you. He will lapse into the same old interview persona we have seen for years now. On Elba getting his guitar out and playing guess which chord, you think why doesn’t Paul just say “No offence but this is going to look crap mate.”

  7. To answer the question in the OP: Probably, but I haven’t checked and won’t.

    I saw them in a brief insert into the Strictly final and made a mental note to avoid seeing any more of it!

  9. Just caught the last 20 mins or so after watching something else but it was toe-curlingly bad. Idris asked the same question twice even in that 20 mins and we’ve heard everything Macca said a few times before (or it felt like it).

    New album is very enjoyable though.

  10. I knocked this on the head when I answered my own question:
    “How many people ahead of Idris Elba born 1972 would I want to interview Paul McCartney?”
    To be honest I stopped counting at 3,766, 451.

    • Young people, eh? Pfff. We’ll be getting spotty oiks in their 30s speaking to ex Beatles next, and we all know what decade THEY were born in,.

  13. I’m obviously in the minority here, because I enjoyed it. I’m not sure why people were expecting McCartney to be interrogated, or if they were expecting him to suddenly reveal something he hasn’t mentioned in the last forty-five years.

    Did I ever tell you about the time John and I accidentally killed a student at his Art College…

  14. Didn’t watch it.
    Didn’t even know it was going to happen.
    Wouldn’t have watched it if I had known it was on.
    Totally Beatled-out for the forseeable future..

  15. It was alright, bear in mind that most people watching haven’t heard as many Macca interviews as many of us have so it was probably good viewing for yr casual viewer – at least he didn’t tell the story about “the movement is on your shoulder”. Adam Buxton got a more relaxed chat out of him on his podcast and you sensed his guard dropped at least a little bit and talked about his favourite food, going to see Bob Dylan, his post 1970 meet ups with John and meeting Bertrand Russell – worth a listen.
    https://www.adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/7-bfk9m-4l8kp-blcga-jwabs-blbb8-b9mjx-fj3gr-j4lyp-9jlhe-a4bhm-c67yy-szhgm-m8pcd-l376z-zjb32-wh9dr-za87b-c8l3j-byyhb-segba-hlsc6-5m648

  16. Thanks for the Adam Buxton podcast link. I just wish that Paul would be a bit more thoughtful with his answers rather than just being lite entertainment. If only John was still alive you know you’d get so much more.

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