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SERGEANT _JOHN As the election reaches fever pitch, ITN's political editor is in his element, although he admits he might be overdosing.Just as well then that he's got a comedic side to keep him - and us - sane ... "I stopped calling Blair 'Tony' when he became PM" As we proceed towards election day, this?' I had a fantasy I'd be left on a desert island and have to ITV Election 200 Thursday ITV pummelled by humbug, tawdry gimmicks, reinvent everything, so I did a lot of science and was obsessed and some idealism, there are few more to quite an alarming extent thinking I'd have to know how the amiable and authoritative guides than the slightly dishevelled, petrol engine works, and so on. I'd love not to have been like wispy-haired 56-year-old who started his career as a stand-up that, but it's a neurosis. My father [a parson] was an obsessive comedian, spent 30 years with the BBC, and is now ITN's politi- in a different way, an intellectual who learnt 30 languages. I cal editor, on screen daily during the campaign between eight asked him in my early twenties, 'Dad, have you been a suc- in the morning and 10.30 at night. "It's a great buzz moment cess?' and he replied, 'Of course. Because I'm your father,' for all of us," he says, admitting he retains undiminished which was neat because it works on so many different levels: enthusiasm and a heroic - some might say naive or self-serving either, 'Don't ask me that, you cheeky bugger,' or 'If you ques- - lack of cynicism, even though this is the ninth election he tion me, you question yourself.' He was a clever man, but has covered.
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