Stuart Hall: from national treasure to opportunistic predator

ONE of the perks of a career in journalism is that you get to meet your heroes, especially those who you have admired and respected, maybe even looked up to as role models.
The dilemma is that sometimes these meetings prove to be a crushing disappointment.
What you might see of a personality on television may be all veneer and sheen.
Up front and personal, that toothpaste smile quickly disappears amid a myriad of time-sensitive publicists and a coterie of parasitical hangers-on.
Early in my journalism career, I interviewed the legendary singer, Max Bygraves, the crooner who was the granny's favourite. Perhaps I caught him on a bad day, but he was foul and bad-tempered looking at his watch throughout the interview which was swiftly ended.
I once had a pretty open spat in front of other media with the then Southampton manager, Gordon Strachan, who was livid about something I had written about his players.
On TV, the wee Scot might seem calm and softly-spoken, but he was always a feisty character to interview - never throw a dumb question his way or he'd chew you to pieces - and at this moment he demanded I followed him to the player's changing room to tell him who was the source for my story. I told Strachan to get lost, and ironically from that moment on we actually got on during future interviews.
Perhaps he respected that I'd stood up to him.
Matthew Pinsent was someone I'd always admired as a rower and when before the 1992 Olympic Games I interviewed him at the family home in Portsmouth, he was a delight. We had tea in the family garden and chatted at length about the Barcelona Games. He was charming and personable.
Gold that year with Steve Redgrave suddenly raised his profile and when we arranged an interview before the Atlanta Games in 1996, suddenly I was working through public relations agents. I had to go to Henley for the interview and I had 15 minutes. It was dull and the charm had gone.
Ironically, I caught up with Steve Redgrave afterwards for a chat as we looked out from the balcony of the Leander Club and he was brilliant and so interesting to chat to.
I've not exactly chosen an A-list of personalities as examples, suffice to say that over the years I've interviewed personalities from the world of sport, entertainment and politics who have changed my perception of them overnight. Meeting Harriet Harman at Downing Street a few years ago was an absolute pleasure, Gordon Brown was brief and business-like.
Which leads me somewhat carefully to Stuart Hall. Our paths have crossed a few times at football grounds. In the press room we've spoken, compared notes, no great earnest conversations. I don't know him at all.
But as a journalist and broadcaster, he was a man widely respected and in a different league.
I admired Stuart Hall from a far. Like the children of my generation, we grew up with "It's A Knockout", "A Question of Sport" and his sports reports on the BBC. In later years, I have loved listening to his brilliant football reports on Radio 5Live, and only a few years ago was wrapped to hear the tributes at an 80th birthday celebration in honour of the great man.
I once read this quote about Stuart Hall, which is a fair assessment of the man as a broadcaster:
"Stuart Hall can bring a game alive in a one minute summary, making you feel like you were actually there and experiencing it with him. His voice has a nuance, prosody and natural rhythm that you just don't find amongst the modern ego-sodden bombastic football broadcaster."

How the mighty have fallen. It is hard to imagine how his victims must feel right now. Justice after all this time will be seen to be done. The gravity of the offences is unimaginable.
When I listened to that 80th birthday tribute, there were the likes of Francis Lee, Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee paying tribute to a man who has fallen from a national treasure to an opportunistic predator in a matter of years. It is so, so sad.