’The cultural collapse of television in Britain’

Former Late Show co-host Sarah Dunant considers her former colleague and what they might do next.

"It doesn’t surprise me at all to find Michael now involved in politics. He is a substantial man, a man of sublime intelligence and taste," says Dunant, 59. "But I’m sure that Michael has found that the journey from being one thing to another takes time. It’s a bit like turning around an oil tanker. In my case, it has taken 10 years to change the perception from `Sarah is a television host who sometimes writes novels’ to `Sarah is a novelist who in the past did some television.’

... "The Late Show was an extraordinary show, which you would not now see on British television, such has been the cultural collapse of television in Britain," she says. "Now the only show that would want Michael or I back is Celebrity Big Brother and I’m not sure that he nor I would wish to be in that house."