My esteemed editor asked this morning: what gossip from the Richard Desmond book launch? I wish I could remember. It wasn’t the drink that addled my brain, it was watching the final episode of series five of Game of Thrones.
After returning home from Claridges where Desmond, “Britain’s most controversial media mogul”, held his bash, I settled down (with 2m others, evidently) to what proved to be a truly controversial GoT .
All memory of Desmond’s shindig vanished within minutes as we witnessed death number one: Tara Fitzgerald’s character, Selyse Baratheon, hanging from a tree.
After that, in the tradition of GoT final episodes, the blood flowed freely, culminating in the murder of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) by the men of the Night’s Watch.
Given that Harington has become something of a pin-up, the Twitter response from fans in the US and Britain was predictably - if stupidly - negative. There were plenty of people tweeting that they would never watch it again... yeah, right. (Examples here) Anyway, he gave the game away first to Variety (see here).
There were not so much plot twists as plot terminations. Down went Stannis Baratheon (thanks to Brienne of Tarth), down went Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy, literally, down went the exceptionally nasty Ser Meryn Trant (plaudits to Arya Stark) and down went Myrcella Lannister (a poisoned chalice).
Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen was rescued by one of her fire-breathing beasts only to discover that there are downsides to mothering dragons.
And then we had a reminder of GoT’s gratuitous full-frontal nudity with Lena Headey’s Cersei Lanister being forced to walk naked through her own city. Wonderful stuff.
Thankfully, Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf, lives on, as does Iain Glen’s character Ser Jonah and the evil nut-job that is Melisandre.
Game of Thrones may be very silly (try explaining it to someone who hasn’t seen it and you’ll realise just how ridiculous it sounds) but it is one of the most compelling TV series I’ve ever watched. Good acting, great production values, a terrific plot.
And the Desmond book launch? Fortunately, my memory was rescued by being able to read pages 1, 2 and 3 of today’s Daily Express (and page 2 of the Daily Star).
It appears that I was among the “stars” who turned out to toast Desmond’s autobiography, The Real Deal. (Random House, £20, if you’re buying). I managed to get to page 53 on the train home and was struck by Desmond’s own amazing memory for minute details of his life stretching back 60 years.
There is enough already for me to understand the motivation of the embryo businessman who, at 13, found a way to profit from working in the cloakroom of the Manor House pub.
I’ve yet to reach the launching of his pornographic (aka adult entertainment) businesses. But his real breakthrough came with his acquisition in 2000 of the Express titles and then the killing he made by buying and selling Channel 5.
In his speech, he described his buying of the Express as his “defining moment” because his previous turnover was less than £100m with 150 employees. Suddenly, it expanded to 1,500 people with a turnover with £250m.
Former employees of Express Newspapers might not view Desmond’s ownership in quite such positive terms of course, but media owners in this millennium have cut thousands of jobs.
There were plenty of media guests, including former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, former Sunday Mirror editor Paul Connew, and former Daily Express editor (and still its columnist), Peter Hill. Nick Ferrari, the LBC presenter and former Sun journalist, held court and Alastair Campbell made a fleeting visit too.
One man who deserved his free glass (glasses?) of champagne was Henry Mance, the media correspondent of the Financial Times. In the FT, he recounted how he had to stump up £580 for a bottle of wine chosen by Desmond when he took him to lunch. The resulting interview, incidentally, was superb expletive-laden stuff, with lots of soundbites (see here).
But, after all that, the real deal was Game of Thrones. How long will we have to wait for series six?
