REACH FOR THE SKY
I knew it was over.
Sue was fully supportive. ‘If you want to do something else, that’s fine. I’m right behind you,’ she had said. That was the way it had always been and I loved her for it. She never questioned me and she didn’t ask when I was away. She trusted me unconditionally and knew that I had been given two second chances in life.
In her, there was somebody who accepted who and what I was and took it at face value, while professionally, the Beeb had fulfilled all my dreams way beyond my expectations from those early days of back-watching for Nicholas Witchell.
I was as married to the job as I was to Sue.
‘I’m going to take redundancy,’ I told her in the spring of 2011. It was on offer. I’d had enough.
‘Well, look, we’ll just work something out. Let’s see what comes up,’ she said, brilliantly on side. She hadn’t ever tired of all the trips, even though after Friendly Fire I promised I would try to keep them down to two or three weeks. She would always say be careful but she knew I wouldn’t tell her the real story – Friendly Fire and the Tsunami excepted – and even then I was clinical on the detail.
It was after the Pinsent trip that I finally made up my mind, and the BBC accepted my forms the following June. On 19 August, I left the BBC for the final time.
My very last trip was straight after to Ukraine to recce the Euro 2012s – something I had already had a whiff of a story on for whoever would hire me next. If nobody did, then I had plenty of stuff to go freelance on. I’d had a great run. But I wasn’t going to ride a desk for the next decade.
In my mind, I knew I had a great reputation and everything said go. John was coming towards the end of his time; Paul Easter was changing my department; finance and expenses were under scrutiny; Health and Safety was king; and crucially both Sue’s and my own dad had passed away.
When a mutual friend insinuated that there was something going at Sky and I could work with the brilliant Stuart Ramsay and Alex Crawford, both of whom had done the ultimate in the modern era in penetrating the Taliban, my journalistic taste buds were whetted again. Years of John not wanting to be embedded turned in seconds to respect when I saw the work that those two were doing for Sky. It was a no-brainer. I had to play the game one more time. Get my money from the Beeb. Then wait for Sky to call.
I would miss some of the characters – people who had made the BBC what it was, not those who had recently been seen to make it what it would become.
I’d had only had two proper jobs, and I had no regrets.
John wrote me a reference and I knew our paths would cross again. Being nominated for an Emmy for Ciudad Juárez and being shortlisted for the Rory Peck Award for Friendly Fire said it all.
Job done.
It was time for the Bodyguard to reach for the Sky. I had been honoured and absolutely loved my life on the front line. Now, new challenges lay ahead with another major international broadcaster.
I couldn’t wait to go to the next level.
Belize Jungle patrol, 1985. Another country, another era – soldier boy.
Just back from the Falklands, 1982. Prince Philip inspects.
Three Dogs and three hours on the dusty road from Tora Bora to Jalalabad. Fatigue hiding behind the shades!
Zim, 2008. About to slip under the radar.
The Keshwa Chaca, believed to be the last remaining Inca rope bridge, spans the Apurímac River near Huinchiri, Peru, in the Province of Canas.
Kabul City, 2008, the suicide bomber’s vest.
Ciudad Juárez. Distraught – their son and grandson slain in the drugs war.
Harry’s Game. The first meeting – Varna, Bulgaria.
Just north of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan – a typical Afghan family.
The museum at Halabja, northern Iraq astride a T55.
Firdos Square, Baghdad. Seconds after avoiding that rocket.
Banda Aceh. No words needed.
Sadr City, Baghdad. John Simpson and our translator Leith leaving in haste.
Seconds before the World Cup Final 2010. I’m on the panel!
Surobi, Afghanistan. Death Valley. Nick Woolley on camera, and our own police escort watching us.
We made it! At the top of Tora Bora with my old mate Kev and my new mate Ran.
Five minutes after Friendly Fire, 2003.
2003 – tasting the sound of freedom, moments after Friendly Fire.
Inside Juárez Prison where the guards wear balaclavas for fear of reprisals in the outside world.
Tigris Rowing Club, 2010. Sir Matthew Pinsent and Sarah attaching cameras to the boat.
Haiti, 2010. Chuck, Matthew, Ian, James and, oh … William Jefferson Clinton.
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Biteback Publishing Ltd
Westminster Tower
3 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7SP
Copyright © Craig Summers & Tony Horne 2012
Craig Summers and Tony Horne have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the publisher’s prior permission in writing.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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ISBN 978–184954–414–6
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Also available from Biteback
INSIDE THE DANGER ZONES
PAUL MOORCRAFT
‘I am amazed he’s still alive.’ Sir John Keegan, Daily Telegraph
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, Inside the Danger Zones is the story of Paul Moorcraft’s work during the major wars of the last three decades. As a freelance war correspondent and military analyst for many of the top TV networks, Moorcraft has parachuted into countless war zones and worked at the heart of the British security establishment.
432pp paperback, £12.99
Available from all good bookshops or order from www.bitebackpublishing.com
Also available from Biteback
A STATE OF WAR EXISTS
MICHAEL NICHOLSON
“The worst moment in a war was my fear I would not be sent to it.”
So wrote the young Michael Nicholson, a reporter whose astonishing career has covered eighteen major conflicts. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the Falklands War, A State of War Exists sees the veteran journalist pondering what made him want to risk life and limb travelling to the most dangerous parts of the world, at the most dangerous times – over 200 journalists have been killed in the last three years alone. Was it machismo or masochism that encouraged him so compulsively and repeatedly to risk his life?
320pp hardback, £20
Available from all good bookshops or order from
www.bitebackpublishing.com
Bodyguard Page 34
