Kate Plummer
Jan 31, 2022
GB News
In what is perhaps a sign that they are struggling to book current politicians as guests, GB News summoned the ghost of Winston Churchill in the form of an impersonator and interviewed him as if he was the actual living Churchill.
In a segment to commemorate the anniversary of Churchill's funeral, Anne Diamond and Stephen Dixon interviewed Stan Streather in character as "Winstan Churchill" about how he would fare if he was the prime minister in the present day.
"I was the right man at the right moment. I don't think I could probably survive in the current climate although one would give it a go, of course," Streather/ Churchill said.
Later, breaking character he explained he has "great fondness for the great man" trying to "keep a piece of history alive" and also noted: "When you look like this, there's not a lot else you can do."
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Fair enough and it is a pretty convincing act but reacting to GB News' decision to run an interview with an impersonator in character, people thought it was a pretty odd slow news day:
This is an actual thing that happened on an actual TV channel today.pic.twitter.com/ziH0RynE9B— Mic Wright (@Mic Wright) 1643557483
The Spitting Image puppets are a lot more realistic these days...https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1487814038964867079\u00a0\u2026— Edwin Hayward \ud83e\udd84 \ud83d\udde1 (@Edwin Hayward \ud83e\udd84 \ud83d\udde1) 1643588361
Coming Up: GB News will be re-enacting the Bengal Famine.https://twitter.com/WritesBright/status/1487727272975126528\u00a0\u2026— Aditya Chakrabortty (@Aditya Chakrabortty) 1643538671
Miss a time when The Day Today was a satire & not a template for news broadcastinghttps://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1487814038964867079\u00a0\u2026— tom jamieson (@tom jamieson) 1643581346
These are the end days\u2026https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1487814038964867079\u00a0\u2026— Dom Joly (@Dom Joly) 1643582181
On my show tomorrow: Socrates, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven, Billy the Kid, Sigmund Freud, Joan of Arc & Abraham Lincoln. They *all* furiously condemn anybody still supporting Boris Johnson.\n(Hi @ed_solomon!)https://twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1487814038964867079\u00a0\u2026— James Oh Brien (@James Oh Brien) 1643573603
As someone who specialised in Churchill\u2019s relationship with the press over the course of two degrees, I can safely say he\u2019d never have appeared on GB News in any form.https://twitter.com/writesbright/status/1487727272975126528\u00a0\u2026— Lisa Wade \ud83d\udc99 (@Lisa Wade \ud83d\udc99) 1643554306
GB News have invited on a Winston Churchill impersonator for the anniversary of his funeral.\n\nSatire has nothing on this.pic.twitter.com/MxvPhR1fPL— Sam Bright (@Sam Bright) 1643536797
We suppose there's worse dead politicians they could have interviewed.
Enjoyed this article? Then click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help it rise through the indy100 rankings and have your say in our news democracy.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)
x