Pathetic Insights
Pat, where
and when were you born?
In a hospital... In Kent... Sevenoaks I was from, I went to school there. I
was born on 16-06-69 which means it's my birthday soon.
What kind of jobs did you do before you began working for television?
Ehh, well I used to be like a wind surf and water-ski instructor. Going out too much
really. I lived abroad for about six years in Greece and Spain teaching water-skiing and
that. Then I was a manager of a night club; Cheers in Wimbledon. I was an insurance broker
at Lloyds of London. [ Using a very Cockney accent ] I'm a qualified Lloyds of London
insurance broker... Very interesting. [ snoring ]
Is that how you managed to destroy things so violently... To get the money back
for it?
It's frightening when I look back at some of those tapes and stuff. That wasn't me doing
that, was it. :-)
What sort of music do you like?
Loud... Anything... I like sort of Oasis type stuff [ one of our home page team members
was wearing an Oasis T-shirt ] Ehh, I used to be intostuff like The Doors and that when I
was younger. Any sort of thing really. I dress up as the Spice Girls a lot. Some days I'm
Geri, sometimes I'm Mel.
Do you have any favourite TV presenters apart from Ray?
I'm trying to think really...ehh. No, I don't really know... I do like Letterman actually
and Jay Leno, I quite like him as well. He's quite good.
How did you become involved with television?
I remember I just got back to England and I was working doing odd jobs and stuff like
that. Often I didn't have any work. At the time my girlfriend said "you've always
wanted to work in TV". So I sent my CV to MTV and I just kept hassling them.
Eventually I had interview after interview. Will [ former producer of Most Wanted -- Ed. ]
interviewed me. I started at MTV as a trainee and everything sort of just happened.
What do you think of MTV now?
[ laughing for quite some time ] No comment... I don't watch it. I don't think it is what
it used to be. I think it's missing that sort of fun. People can be too cool sometimes.
Most people just tune in for a video, but when we had that live show people would watch
MTV just for that. It's a lot of cheap TV nowadays I suppose.
What was your main role in Most Wanted apart from destroying presents?
Basically with the Private Parts and Clean our Souls and all the rest of it I used to get
the letters and I would select the ones who would be a good story and which ones where the
best. Which each item every day I used to look at it and think "what interesting way
can I think of to destroy this". You know, a different way to do it than just smash
it. It never worked anyway. [ laughing ]
What
is your relation with other team members who used to work for Most Wanted?
I'm really close with Nina, she is one of my best friends. I'm good friends with Ray as
well. A lot of the other guys that where on the Most Wanted team are now working for TFI
Friday: Shelly, Phil and Will. It's really weird this sort of job. You work with people
really closely and when you leave to work on something else, then you're just too busy to
see each other as much as you should do. But me and Nina are like best mates. Bosom
buddies.[ laughing ] I won't say anything more about the Dutch dungeon in Amsterdam.
Have you ever fancied someone from Club Bed?
[ long silence... ] The odd person might have caught my eye... That is a good question. I
used to end up in my boxer shorts all the time, didn't I. There was a lot of nudity going
on there. [ we mention Most Wanted Blotto ] Oh my god, that was so sad wasn't it. We were
taking the mickey. MTV were giving away £1000 pounds everyday. I used to have like a hunk
everyday. One time I had my trousers ripped off. Some of my private parts almost popped
out.
What do you think of VH-1?
I think it's probably better than MTV actually. A lot of the interviews and packages on it
are very good. Am I getting old?
How was it like working for Most Wanted?
I hated it. ;-) No, I loved it. When we did Most Wanted, doing 4 live shows a week, it was
a lot of hard work. You would finish around 10 o'clock, go to bed and then go back to work
again, but every day I looked forward going to work. It was really good. Every day I went
in I had never planned anything. I never knew what was going to happen on the show, none
of us did.
What was your first impression of Ray?
He's easy to talk to; he's not acting like he's some kind of star. His way of presenting
is very original, very different. You don't realise what kind of pressures he's under when
he's presenting. He's got a director, a producer, a floor manager and all these
conversations are going on in the air whilst you're then telling a joke at the same time.
What do you do at Wanted?
Well, I work here as a researcher, doing the same as always before. My title is like a
back tracker. Me and the studio tracker basically have to work out where the runners are
and we send the tracker out on the leads that we get. I still get that wrong as well...
I'm not really good actually, am I.
What do you think of the show concept?
Amazing, I mean the technology in it is just massive. Someone could be hiding in a phone
box, God knows where, and you've got that picture beamed down via satellite. It's a
brilliant idea.
Do you know something funny which happened to you at MTV?
Just before I left MTV someone came up to me and said "do you realise that Clean our
Souls sounds like clean ass holes" and I was like nooooo? Really? Hello...
