Back in March 2011, I wrote my proudest ever piece for the Daily Star – my resignation. Little did I expect the minor media ripple it provoked would soon be engulfed by the tsunami of Guardian phone-hacking revelations about the News of the World, nor that I would find myself giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry, sparring on Newsnight or speaking to MPs in parliament. It was certainly a change of pace from interviewing stuffed meerkats.
One Rogue Reporter is, in part, the tale of that journey. But, for the most part, the film is an unabashed revenge caper, with me using the mischievous skills I’d honed at the gutter end of Fleet Street against the highest hanging fruit of the tabloid tree. Be it papping Mail Online editor Martin Clarke, luring Kelvin Mackenzie into a kiss ‘n’ Tell sting or revealing exactly how Neville Thurlbeck obtained the nickname “Onan the Barbarian”, every hack has his forte – it just seems mine’s going after newspaper editors.
Do two wrongs make a right? Probably not. But they do sometimes make a funny, and this film is, first and foremost, a comedy. Those seeking a measured dissertation should look elsewhere.One Rogue Reporter is an hour of Fleet Street mud wrestling – no one, least of all me, comes out clean.