The Spike: Andrew Marr 

Lucy Kenningham | 7th January 2022 | Magazine
Spike

After 21 years at the BBC, Andrew Marr is breaking free – and the corporation will undoubtedly hope he’s not kickstarting a trend

“I couldn’t sing, act, tell jokes, play any musical instrument, hit kick or catch a ball, run for more than a few yards without panting, speak another language, or assemble things without them falling apart immediately,” claims Andrew Marr in his 2004 autobiography My Trade: A History of British Journalism, explaining how he “stumbled” into the career of journalism.

Really? Marr is one of those highly successful men with the kind of light hobbies that others would consider taxing as part-time jobs. Not only is Marr a vigorous exerciser, compulsive reader, an established author and a popular historian, he is also an accomplished amateur artist. His show at Eames Fine Arts gallery in Bermondsey last summer displayed an array of bright, Matisse-inspired paintings: nudes, landscapes, still lifes. His aim, to create a “visual platform for engaging with the world”.

His eponymous show has done just that in its 16 years of existence. The nexus of The Andrew Marr Show is its collage of colours and music in the title sequence, its melange of genres: newspaper review, sofa-style interviews, news reports and analysis, politics and culture features (high and lower brow), all anchored by a host whose attention to detail and intense interest in everything – even the weather – gives the viewer a good reason to care, about the show and by dint of that the world.

The show, as Marr would agree, …

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