▲Guy Goma's Accidental BBC Interview Lives on After 20 Years(nytimes.com)
130 points by nxobject 2 days ago | 15 comments
▲ebbi 11 hours ago
His facial expression when the presenter was introducing 'him' is absolute gold! When I first watched it, I actually thought it was a skit - it being BBC, the animated facial reactions, the presenter trying to navigate his (non)-answers.
▲toast0 8 hours ago
I hadn't seen or heard of this one. It reminds me a bit of this classic c-span moment: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/16/371232190...
▲swores 19 minutes ago
Are you just sharing "this is something else on a TV program that amused me", or am I being dense in my failing to spot anything that's similar between the two situations?
▲zdw 11 hours ago
This seems to have happened about a year before "The IT Crowd" episode "Smoke and Mirrors" aired.

In that episode Moss, one of the IT denizens, goes to a TV studio where he is mistakenly put on a news program and interviewed about a war.

I wonder if they're related...

▲bgc 11 hours ago
That episode is indeed based on this event: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1111175/trivia/?ref_=tt_dyk_trv
▲mmsimanga 7 hours ago
On South African national TV the interviewee's chair broke. Still cracks me up to this day. https://youtu.be/XnHIeXQCfog?si=u4kzKfPLKSNGbBf_
▲hermitcrab 2 hours ago
That gave me a good laugh on a Monday morning. Thanks.
▲londons_explore 4 hours ago
There must have been some maintenance crew who had been asking for a bigger budget for months...

I wonder if they assisted the chairs downfall...

▲dude250711 2 hours ago
Because of their composure, it almost looks like an intended format: you have 20 seconds to make your point before the chair collapses.
▲sxzygz 2 days ago
The interview itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Y2uQn_wvc
▲helsinkiandrew 5 hours ago
You can see his terror on his face and the lip trembling at his sudden realization somethings gone wrong at 24 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Y2uQn_wvc&t=24s

▲rchaud 10 hours ago
One of the first viral videos in the early years of Youtube. This was at a time when the Internet was just small enough that a single video could organically circulate around the whole world and be universally appreciated for its ridiculous yet endearing nature, by adults and kids alike.
▲aaron695 4 hours ago
[dead]
▲heldrida 11 hours ago
Related HN posted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074260

A book was released…

▲zoenolan 4 hours ago
Guy and Elliott Gotkine interviewed about the book

https://youtu.be/VO0kaSHAOSE

▲huflungdung 10 hours ago
[dead]
▲rmason 2 days ago
For those without a NYT subscription:

https://archive.is/xZgBI#selection-505.0-505.55

▲cocoacat 11 hours ago
gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/business/media/bbc-guy-go...
▲binaryturtle 11 hours ago
But this needs a Cloudflare subscription, or something? I can't open it either. :)
▲lamonade 2 hours ago
try vpn. i think archive.is blocks at least Finland
▲manyturtles 8 hours ago
I wish I could have seen Guy Kewney's face when he saw this. Sadly now passed, he had a charmingly irreverent sense of humor around Ziff-Davis UK back in the day.
▲fakedang 2 hours ago
Well he didn't take it lightly and was very upset. They apparently did a pre-recorded version of his answers that the producers of that segment specifically told the night shift to air online, but the night shift didn't, which further exasperated him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0kaSHAOSE

▲renticulous 2 hours ago
Just goes onto show how fragile the trust network between humans is overall. Today, journalism is all about "trusted sources", "official sources", "my birdie told me".
▲GJim 1 hour ago
Oh dear.

If you bothered to read the story behind this, you would know the chap had the same name as the 'real' person being interviewed who was waiting in a different reception area. Our man got called forward by mistake, he was a quiet chap who didn't want to rock the boat and so (very amusingly) got interviewed by an unknowing presenter.

To claim this is about fragile trust, rather than a silly mistake, is bollocks.

▲dagi3d 4 hours ago
Did he eventually get the job he was initially applying?
▲AlecSchueler 4 hours ago
No, Guy Kewney got it.
▲decimalenough 4 hours ago
According to the article, no.
▲PUSH_AX 3 hours ago
They didn't give him the job in the end!
▲ 11 hours ago
▲mkoryak 9 hours ago
Gift nyt link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/business/media/bbc-guy-go...
▲ares623 10 hours ago
[flagged]
▲recursive 10 hours ago
We're human supremacists. We would take risks to rescue stranded hikers, but not as much to rescue a stranded e bike. We eat animals but not humans. Humans are special to humans.
▲DoktorDelta 9 hours ago
He didn't boil a lake in the process