All Talk 28 - Careers in Shame

DR. NOSTRUM

Tony Adams – there's a fucking idiot. He got a book out of it.

HUTCHBACK

Ye-ah

DR. NOSTRUM

How do you get a book out of it? How d'you get a.. Can you imagine, in the sixties, getting a book out of standing up and saying, you know, "I'm a drunk and I piss the sheets and I," you know, "don't really know what I'm doing."

HUTCHBACK

Well, you know, it's...

DR. NOSTRUM

It's a career.

HUTCHBACK

...not a bad...

DR. NOSTRUM

Nowadays it's a career. It used to be shame, now it's a career. That's true of a lot of culture actually isn't it, there's a lot of career in shame, being, er, publicly...

HUTCHBACK

Mm.

DR. NOSTRUM

...publicly humiliated is a career for most people these days – George Galloway.

HUTCHBACK

Yes, he's done well for himself.

DR. NOSTRUM

Yeah. Ever since that public humiliation he's (pause) sank without trace. What was he doing here, did Mrs. Hutchback say? He's not a candidate for London Mayor.

HUTCHBACK

He is. Yeah.

DR. NOSTRUM (does not compute)

Why would he be a candidate for London Mayor, he doesn't even live here? That would be good - if the London Mayor lived in New York. (long pause) I suppose that's the problem with being Mayor: you have to live in the place you're Mayor of.