BBC News 24 interviews cab driver about "Apple vs. Apple"

YeatsCounty

The interview

Check out his reaction when his "name" is read out!

From Sky News:

A computer expert has spoken of his astonishment at seeing a taxi driver interviewed on BBC television news in the mistaken belief it was him.

Guy Kewney was invited to BBC Television Centre to answer questions on the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer.

As he watched the BBC's News 24 channel in a reception area while waiting to be interviewed, he was gobsmacked to see "Guy Kewney" appear on the screen.

Mr Kewney, who is white, is a specialist in computers and information technology, having worked as an IT journalist and founded newswireless.net.

But the "Guy Kewney" who appeared in the BBC slot was black, and did not seem to know much about the complicated High Court case.

The cabbie, who has not been named, gamely attempted to answer questions fired at him by BBC consumer affairs correspondent Karen Bowerman.

He had been waiting for his fare in reception when he heard the name Guy Kewney called out. Presumably expecting the expert to follow him to the taxi, he raised his hand - and found himself being ushered into a studio and fitted with a microphone.

On his website, the real Mr Kewney said the cabbie "seemed as baffled as I felt" when asked about the consequences of the lawsuit live on BBC News 24.

Only when Ms Bowerman announced live on air the name and title of the man who should have been there and asked the first question did the driver realise there had been a mix-up.

Admitting the mistake, a BBC spokeswoman said: "We apologise to viewers for any confusion."

Rollo Tamasi

fantastic!

Femelade

ah the poor fella! the look on his face!

SpAcEd OuT

that is hilarouis

byte

Haha, BBC pwned!

aidan_walsh

Brilliant. "Well, as we've just heard there..."

hullaballoo

That is one of the funniest things I've ever seen the BBC do! He did really well to keep a straight face, and answer the questions. Fair play to him.

Pigman II

I think the taxi guy did a great job. I'm guessing most people would have just freaked out if they'd been dropped in that mess.

It just shows you what a lot of crap TV news is. The interviewer was clearly on autopilot and was only focused on her script and nothing the interviewee had to say. Yer man could have said he liked to drown ginger babies in a bucket and she wouldn't have taken a blind bit of notice.

Mossy Monk

the look on his face at the start was great

radiospan

Ha! Brilliant.

shoutman

The look on his face was gas, but fair dues to the man he handled it well.

flogen

Pigman II wrote:

I think the taxi guy did a great job. I'm guessing most people would have just freaked out if they'd been dropped in that mess.

It just shows you what a lot of crap TV news is. The interviewer was clearly on autopilot and was only focused on her script and nothing the interviewee had to say. Yer man could have said he liked to drown ginger babies in a bucket and she wouldn't have taken a blind bit of notice.

I don't think that's true in this instance; I think it was quite obvious that the interviewer was listening to what he was saying, but he had nothing to say (quite naturally in that instance). I'd say had the real man been out there the interview would have been twice as long, you could see she was struggling to get that time out of him as it was, for all she knew he was just camera shy (or given his accent and the way he spoke she may have assumed he was a non national and not completely fluent in english and so was struggling).

all in all though, fair play to the taxi driver, he was nice enough to avoid those involved some immediate embarresment and make himself (the expert seem the fool until afterwards); two Guy Kewney's in the same BBC studio at the same time, what are the odds?

SpAcEd OuT

lol just watching it again im sure the cameraman was like WTF when he started making that face

ChityWest

That is excellent ! funniest thing I have seen in ages - what the hell was that guy thinking ?

Karoma

The look on his face at the start is priceless.

Manolo Blahnik

He was probably thinking omg I'll ruin everything for the bbc crew if I say I'm not him

or he was thinking omg here's my few mintues of fame

blu_sonic

the best bit was "just as you heard there" lol yeah ya plums

Oriel

That is ****ing priceless!

Ruu_Old

Ahah the look on his face :eek:

Chucky the tree

If they hadnt actually realised the story, no one would of known he was just a cabbie. I'd say people who were watching it live wouldnt of even guessed.

Smellyirishman

Haha, fantastic. The face at the start was priceless, and then watching him breathing is pretty funny too. Fair play to him I say, did a fairly good BSing job but I suspect the reporters were somewhat weary of him. Just listen to the reporter as she hands off "Eh, now we can eh, go over to eh, dude at eh, the eh, other place, eh, so, eh, what do you think? EH?"

DOLEMAN

HERO!!! Hahah quality. Haven't laughed like that in a long time!

Sofaspud

Smellyirishman wrote:

Haha, fantastic. The face at the start was priceless, and then watching him breathing is pretty funny too. Fair play to him I say, did a fairly good BSing job but I suspect the reporters were somewhat weary of him. Just listen to the reporter as she hands off "Eh, now we can eh, go over to eh, dude at eh, the eh, other place, eh, so, eh, what do you think? EH?"

That was probably because the rest of the crew were in her earpiece going "You stupid bitch, he's out HERE!"

He did keep himself together fairly well, though. Well done to him.

Smellyirishman

Sofaspud wrote:

That was probably because the rest of the crew were in her earpiece going "You stupid bitch, he's out HERE!"

Hehe, quite possibly.

MrJoeSoap

Absolutely priceless. Great post!

The way he pulls about 20 faces in 2 seconds and then says "Good morning" at the start...

YeatsCounty

Sarah: "Were you surprised by this verdict today?"
'Guy': "I was surprised to see.....this verdict, to come on me....I was not expecting that."

Basically, he was saying that he was surprised to be asked at all. Well done to him for getting over the shock of realising what was going on, he didn't do too badly at all!

bounty

thats his 30 seconds of fame

hmm looks so easy to get on tv

flogen

I'm gonna head over to BBC studios, wait for a name to be called out and say it's me... I think we all should..

we can then have a competition to see how many odd faces we can pull, and how much BSing we can get away with before we're cut!

monkeyfudge

flogen wrote:

two Guy Kewney's in the same BBC studio at the same time, what are the odds?

The driver wasn't Guy Kewney, he was there to pick him up.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Patricide

O god the first time i thought it was ****, but the second time i say it and his face o man i almost fell off the chair laughing.

DOLEMAN

The guy who was actually supposed to be interviewed seems like a real dick. In his blog he's called the taxi guy an ignoramus and makes fun of his lack of English.

What a moron. http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2697

jimmycrackcorm

Having read guy kewneys articles overmany years I thought the cabbie gave just as good a response as him.

monkeyfudge

DOLEMAN wrote:

The guy who was actually supposed to be interviewed seems like a real dick. In his blog he's called the taxi guy an ignoramus and makes fun of his lack of English.

What a moron. http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2697

Wow.. he really is an asshat... he seems most put out by the fact that the cabbie was black, that's like the biggest insult for him.

blu_sonic

lol asshat

ferdi

priceless

flogen

monkeyfudge wrote:

The driver wasn't Guy Kewney, he was there to pick him up.

AH... misread the article and thought he was called Kewney too, thought it was far too much of an amazing coincidence to be true!!!

Yeah, the guy seems like a bit of an asshat alright; pretty ignorant himself.

Oh, and reading his pre-judgement judgement, he knew just about as much about the realities as auld cabbie did; he was predicting that Apple was to be banned from using the name for iPod and iTunes and would be forced to launch a new company (perhaps with partnership with Apple Corp...). Yeah, on the button with that judgement, Guy.

Pigman II

Hah, after reading his blog I'm glad it happened to someone like him. If he just laughed it off it'd be excellent publicity for him but he seems to be taking it too seriously.

"My career! My reputation! My pink skin! Blah Blah Blah"

masterK

Brilliant, the look on his face at the start was priceless. The real interviewee sounds like a right dick all right.

chamlis

Give this guy his own show!

Lump

Ha ha, when I got a cab on Saturday night everyone (All the drivers) were talking about this. I lol'd.

John

iguana

DOLEMAN wrote:

The guy who was actually supposed to be interviewed seems like a real dick. In his blog he's called the taxi guy an ignoramus and makes fun of his lack of English.

What a moron. http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2697

Did you follow the link to his message boards? Pages and pages of people tell him what they think of his comments(similar reaction to here), then he comes back and calls them all idiots. I think I'm going to go over and join the idiots and add to the flaming.

Asshat!

DOLEMAN

iguana wrote:

Did you follow the link to his message boards? Pages and pages of people tell him what they think of his comments(similar reaction to here), then he comes back and calls them all idiots. I think I'm going to go over and join the idiots and add to the flaming.

Asshat!

Yeah, I'm one of the Steve's.

Seriously, what a moron. The black dude is my hero

Snickers Man

monkeyfudge wrote:

Wow.. he really is an asshat... he seems most put out by the fact that the cabbie was black, that's like the biggest insult for him.

Well now to be fair, I think at the time he wrote that he was unaware that the guy was a taxi driver who was waiting for him in good faith and that it was entirely the Beeb's cockup. He could have been some chancer trying to get on the telly and deliberately bluffed his way on.

And he didn't criticise the fact that the guy was black; any more than he criticised the fact that he (the real Kewney) isn't. He was just making the point that there are few physical similarities between the two. If there is a more pasty-faced person than Guy Kewney in England, I've yet to see them.

Vinnie69

What I'm wondering is, did the taxi driver receive a guest fee for his performance? He certainly deserved it

Lump

All the cabs the BBC use are on account He was probably just sitting waiting to drive the real guy home after the interview.

John

robinph

There is a general security article that has just appeared on The Register written buy the real Guy Kewney, although it could be the cab driver in disguise again, he didn't sound quite as pissed off in that piece though.

BrenC

haha, I found that really funny :d

His face at the start was priceless

iguana

Turns out he wasn't a cabbie after all. He is called Guy Goma and thought he was being interviewed for a job.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4774429.stm

singingstranger

chamlis wrote:

Give this guy his own show!

What odds that he'll be on Big Brother this Thursday night?!

SpAcEd OuT

lol they have him on Channel 4 News right now talking about Hugo Chavez that is hilarouis