Twelve shows down, twelve to go. Today is a bank holiday in Scotland and Edinburgh was teeming with people enjoying both the Fringe and the good weather.
I have to admit I got up late today but then did a bit of prep for the Nicola Sturgeon interview. At noon I got a cab to St Andrew Square to meet my boss at LBC, James Rea, for lunch. He had travelled up for the day to see the Sturgeon event. We had a really good catch-up on all sorts of things. I also saw Ruth Davidson and her new baby Fin. I'd tried to get Ruth as a guest, but couldn't make contact with her during her maternity leave. She's first on my list for next year. If there is a next year!
If I'm honest, the Nicola Sturgeon interview is the one I have been most looking forward to, but also most dreading. Not in a bad way, I should say, but to me the success of the whole run rather depended on whether this went well. My state of nervousness wasn't helped when the director of the Edinburgh Fringe arrived and told me Nicola had never done a Fringe event before.
The audience started arriving in very good time and lots of them were keen to have a chat. Then I heard that Nicola arrived so I went out to meet her. I have never interviewed her before, hence my nervousness. A friend of mine knows her quite well and advised me not to ask anything that might make her clam up. Although I hadn't prepared any questions, just areas to talk about, I thought I'd start with Boris Johnson's visit last week. It was the right decision and she was highly entertaining. I spent quite a bit of time talking about Brexit and Indyref2, but I was keen to move on to more personal issues.
I started that section off by asking about the loneliness of a top politician, before moving on to ask if she misses Alex Salmond. I knew she wouldn't be able to talk much about him given the pending court case, but she spoke rather movingly about how he had been her political soulmate. We then had a chat about what she might do when she eventually stands down and suggested that she might like a radio show. In fact I think she suggested it. I turned to James Rea and he seemed up for the idea. We talked about much else besides and the audience seemed to really enjoy it. I have to say she came across incredibly well. I think people outside Scotland see her in a very different way to people here. Naturally she has her fair share of political enemies here, but I think Scotland sees a softer side of Nicola Sturgeon. Well, they did today, anyway.
Then, by way of contrast, my 6pm guest was none other than Christopher Biggins. He and I are seeing a lot of each other this week, given I'm on a radio show with him tomorrow and then am guesting on his show on Wednesday. He was as hilarious as you'd expect and told some brilliant yarns. The whole thing was namedropping-tastic.
I then went for dinner with Corrie Martin and Rebecca Cook from LBC's Scotland newsroom before heading back to the digs to catch up on some emails and watch Newsnight, where they had the most curious Brexit panel, all saying more or less the same thing. Well, they would, wouldn't they, being three Remainers. And pretty ultra ones at that. Hey ho.
Tomorrow it's John McDonnell and Sir Nicholas Soames!
