Mark Inglis admitted last night that reaction to the Everest controversy was
Mark Inglis admitted last night that reaction to the Everest controversy was
KEY POINTS:
There is no false advertising here. Tune into This is Your Life and we get someone's life.
The format is thoroughly sanded down: The eager host with the red book, the shocked and delighted subject finding out they are "it". Then it's on to the parade of teachers,friends, colleagues, photos and video.
Mark Inglis, mountaineer, amputee, paralympian and adventurer, was the shocked and delighted one. An eager and positive Paul Henry wielded the book and kept the traffic flow of colleagues and relatives moving.
He needed his enthusiasm. Inglis doesn't live in a world filled with show business chatterers. It needed work to push across a couple of flat spots with folk who far preferred doing to talking.
We began in 1982 with Inglis and Phil Doole imprisoned in a small cave on a mountain for 13 1/2 days. Then it was winning a cycling medal at the 2000 Paralympics, ending with the brutal climbing of Mt Everest.
As well as the friends we had a couple of big names, Michael Palin and Lady Pippa Blake, chipping in with regards, even though they'd never actually met Inglis.
This is all about warm and friendly, with the nation sharing the good feelings. It is also live television, where even the slickest and fastest host can have trouble papering over a zinging moment.
The elephant in this particular room was the controversy after Inglis' finest achievement, climbing Mt Everest. The exhilaration was chopped when allegations Inglis' team left a dying climber behind whipped around the world. This brought us sharp moments.
Later on in an intense five or so minutes, Inglis, a man careful with words, took the subject head on, admitting the reaction was "damn tough, when we got home".
While it may have been painful for Inglis it gave the show, as television entertainment, a powerful jolt, hoisting it from the wearily familiar to some real drama.
