LIKE TRACY AND HEPBURN…

Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan

You know that age-old game about who you’d most like to have dinner with?
Well, I’d like to nominate the following couple (I think the rules allow that): BBC broadcaster Peter Snow (yes, he of the “Swingometer”) and his wife, Ann Macmillan, who for a number of years was managing editor of the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
They were at Blenheim to talk about their new book: ‘War Stories: Gripping Tales of Courage, Cunning and Compassion’. And not only was the subject matter fascinating, but so too were they.
If Newsnight or Panorama could ever host a weekly stand-up double act, these two would be perfect. Natural communicators (obviously) they took a topic that could have wallowed in its own self-importance and instead elevated it to a terribly British Indiana Jones-style celebration.
MacMillan was savvy and chirpy while Snow…well, you’d know his voice anywhere - something akin to a pastoral vicar at the turn of the 20th Century, his oration peppered with such affectionate illuminations as “wonderful bloke”, “swashbuckling fellow” and “damn fine chap”.
God they were a sexy couple; they laughed at each other’s asides, burst with pride as the other spoke, and could hardly contain their mutual excitement.
Exhausting and euphoric in equal measure