Home is…
Norbury. Most people probably know it as ‘near Streatham on the way to Gatwick’. I like the feeling that nobody really knows it.
What’s your earliest memory of the city?
Coming down on the coach when I was 10 to see the Millennium Dome for a school trip. The second time, I went for work experience in Parliament when I was 14. I was as politics-obsessed then as I am now. I was walking around going, ‘Oh my god it’s David Blunkett! It’s Jack Straw!’
Most memorable meal?
Pique-Nique in Bermondsey. The most fantastic French cooking. It’s just divine.
Any spots you have introduced your News Agents co-hosts to?
A couple of weeks ago I took Jon [Sopel] to Zima in Soho. The pelmeni [Russian dumplings] are superb. The best thing I like to do with Emily Maitlis is take her to a pub. She’s so resplendent and elegant, there’s just something really funny to me about Emily Maitlis in a boozer.
So, what’s your favourite boozer?
The Angel in Bermondsey. It’s like going in to a slightly different world. You almost feel like you’re in this old wharfside of London.
What’s your London secret?
The Thames Path beyond London Bridge. The South Bank is great but packed. Something weird happens beyond London Bridge, there’s almost no one apart from the occasional runner. If you keep going eventually you get to RSPB Rainham Marshes.
Best thing a cabbie has ever said to you?
‘I love The News Agents’. That was the moment I thought, ‘We’re actually making a bit of a cultural impression.’
Which shops do you rely on?
This sounds so bourgeois but there’s a really lovely delicatessen a few minutes from me, David’s Deli in Streatham Common. The shop I use most is Lidl. Lidl is great! And there’s a bookshop just opened in Balham called Backstory, which I’ve been to a lot.
Best place for a first date?
Go to the National Theatre for a matinee, walk to the Angel inn, then get the Thameslink to a nice restaurant in south London, like Llewelyn’s in Herne Hill.
What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?
I would ban cars. I’m a big, big walker and feel like I spend half my life breathing in fumes while I wait for traffic lights to change.
Where do you go to let your hair down?
I seem to always end up at John the Unicorn in Peckham. But to relax, a few years ago I took up boxing, so I go to a guy called Clinton McKenzie in East Dulwich.
What do you collect?
I love gardening. It’s the opposite of modern life, it’s not instant gratification. So at the moment I’m collecting lots of seeds.
Most iconic Londoner?
Thomas à Becket: he took on the establishment. Virginia Woolf: she’s such a London writer. And someone I interviewed the other day, Diane Abbott. To me, she is an iconic Londoner, the first Black woman MP, she really screams London in a good way.
And finally… What’s your favourite London newsagent?
Haha! I tried to explain to some Americans recently what ‘newsagents’ were… somewhere you can buy cigarettes, newspapers and Twixes. There’s a great newsstand just by Carnaby Street. And the one in Brixton Tube. Considering it’s tiny, it has an amazing array of magazines. One hell of a delivery they get in there!
