My Final Answer

Jeremy Maggs

Description

Jeremy Maggs has been a journalist and a television and radio presenter for over 30 years, with a front-row seat to major news events in the run-up to and during the birth of South Africa’s democracy and beyond. He was also the host of the hugely successful television show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and so became a household name.

He has worked with some of the country’s most respected journalists, interviewed many famous people from around the world, and been at the forefront of developments as the craft morphed into a social media hydra. From Nelson Mandela’s release from prison to his death in 2013, and throughout the many political and news events that have gripped South Africans, Jeremy has been in the thick of the newsrooms that covered the stories.

Written in an engaging and self-deprecating style, this book is an unexpectedly funny and candid, behind-the-scenes account of what was unfolding in those newsrooms as the stories broke, peppered with anecdotes around those involved in making those stories happen.

Sujets

• Communication médiatique
• Media
• Industrie
• Communications
• Business
• Economics
• Memoir
• Marketing et communication
• Industries

Informations

• Publié par: Pan Macmillan South Africa
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781770107779
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

‘A pithy, insightful and often hilarious glimpse behind the scenes of modern newsrooms, as told by South Africa’s best-known TV news anchor.’
– SALLY BURDETT, Anchor of SA Tonight , eNCA
‘Jeremy captures the standard nuttiness of the newsroom with wit, self-deprecating observations and unvarnished honesty. My Final Answer is a funny, wry and often-poignant wander through a truly spectacular career – recommended reading for would-be media types.’
– CHARLOTTE KILBANE, editor of Eyewitness News, Cape Town
‘If Jeremy hadn’t explicitly prohibited the phrase, I would call this the first draft of his personal history. He brings us ringside, behind the camera lens, and shares his unique vantage point overlooking South Africa’s extraordinary post-apartheid journey. But this isn’t just a soaring and sometimes searing book about news and the people who broadcast it. If you’re interested in big business, public relations, quiz shows, world travel and food (much of it free), Jeremy will satisfy your appetites with a page-turning memoir that holds all of us – himself included – to account. It’s a gripping read, just as you’d expect from one of the world’s great broadcasting legends.’
– SIMON MARKS, president and chief correspondent, Feature Story News

For Dad, who didn’t force me into a banking career.
For Mom, who took me to the library. A lot.



First published in 2021
by Pan Macmillan South Africa
Private Bag X19
Northlands
Johannesburg
2116
www.panmacmillan.co.za
ISBN 978-1-77010-776-2
e-ISBN 978-1-77010-777-9
Text © Jeremy Maggs 2021
Foreword © Iman Rappetti 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Editing by Sean Fraser
Proofreading by Sally Hines
Design and typesetting by Triple M Design, Johannesburg
Cover design by publicide
Cover photograph by Gareth Edwards


..... Foreword.
‘… nothing in life shall sever, The chain that is round us now.’
T his opening quote is from the sixth stanza of the famous ‘Eton Boating Song’, which is now over 150 years old. It will forever be part of the opening soundtrack to my broadcasting relationship with Jeremy Maggs. Each night before the camera jib expertly swooped down and our executive producer cued us into News Night , Jeremy and I would do a little pre-show mood-setter. For him it was the British college hymnal with its rousing choir, and for me it was the church of rap with a preacher by the name of Tupac Shakur, much to the amusement of our floor and gallery crew. And while our music preferences represented extreme opposites, we managed to create a broadcasting symphony.
I first encountered Jeremy while watching him on television as he mouthed the iconic words ‘Is that your final answer?’, while I was pregnant with my second child and miserable with sickness. At the time, I remember wondering what his life must be like as the host of one of the most famous game shows in the country.
Then I met him for real, at the now-infamous ANC national conference in Polokwane in 2007. Jeremy was leaning against a wire fence bordering the sprawling estate that was the SABC’s broadcast nerve centre, which dwarfed eNCA’s humble Greyhound city liner-looking outside broadcast bus. We struck up a brief conversation about the underlying machinations of the conference and wished each other well.
I could not have anticipated that not long afterwards we would be hosting eNCA’s prime-time news programme together, a relationship that one industry commentator described as follows: ‘the beloved duos’ on-air chemistry in the age of 24-hour TV news channels was exceptionally rare …’ I certainly hope that sentiment rang true for many viewers because Jeremy and I resolved right at the start that our only competition would be to make each other look and sound better. This included doing hair checks and straightening collars and ties to ensure that there were no unnecessary distractions to the viewers. But deeper than that, we supported each other through five years of sometimes very difficult interviews by not trying to ‘outclever’ one other, an unfortunate and cringeworthy trait in so many on-air pairings.
In this book, which I couldn’t help reading in Jeremy’s voice, you may have questions about his time in the military, you may be incredulous at how he is able to weave so many big themes to gether with a storytelling skill that unfolds with such ease, and you may be curious about what his dreams and nightmares are made of considering the sheer span of his career and the arc of events he has covered.
You will see a side of Jeremy that, like Clark Kent, bursts through the buttons of his collared shirt and reveals the naughty wit and humour that only fleetingly peeps through his on-air news persona. And you will experience an inspiring walk through so many big, euphoric and tragic moments that set the architecture for the country South Africa would become after apartheid.
For journalists and media practitioners, this book is a refresher course in daring, caring and remaining a true ally to ‘the story’. And it is also a tender thank you to his beloved Anne, Alex, Laura and Jameson (the Easter Roast Burglar).
My friend, the chain is round us now. Thank you. Broadcasting with you was always a sheer delight.
Iman Rappetti
Johannesburg, March 2021


..... A short navigation guide.
I feel it’s only fair to warn you that on occasion the timeline of this narrative jumps around a little. One minute you might be in the sunny South of France, the next minute back in South Africa. What tended to happen was that one recollection prompted another, and so down the rabbit hole we tumble – until I remember how we got there in the first place. And then we have to turn around and go back. If you think that’s exhausting and confusing, imagine how I feel. So, let’s begin with a handy timeline that should steer you off the side streets and back onto the highway of the story.
1961 – The South African rand replaces the pound; South Africa becomes a republic; Umkhonto we Sizwe is established; and Jeremy Maggs is born.
1966 – South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is assassinated in parliament by Dimitri Tsafendas; he is replaced by another tyrant, John Vorster; and Jeremy Maggs starts primary school.
1968 – The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when South Africa refuses to accept the presence of South African-born Basil D’Oliveira in the English side; and Jeremy Maggs triumphantly wins the sack race at his first sports day.
1972 – Actor Burt Reynolds poses nude for the centrefold of the April edition of Cosmopolitan ; and Jeremy Maggs wins a school prize for ‘diligence and application’ (the last time that will ever happen).
1974 – New Zealand imposes a blanket ban on sports teams from South Africa; Anneline Kriel is crowned Miss World; and Jeremy Maggs starts high school, where he will perform poorly at maths and fail to make either the first or second XI cricket teams.
1979 – Following the Information Scandal, John Vorster resigns as state president of South Africa; and Jeremy Maggs leaves for Chicago on a year-long student exchange programme, where he will meet a future president and start considering a career in radio.
1984 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; and Jeremy Maggs joins the Eastern Province Herald in Port Elizabeth, where he will get his first newspaper byline for what he thought was a Pulitzer Prize-winning story.
1986 – Pay television channel M-Net is launched; and Jeremy Maggs joins the Sunday Tribune newspaper in Durban, where he will pose nude for an art class.
1988 – Al-Qaeda is formed by Osama bin Laden; singer PJ Powers performs at a charity event in Zimbabwe with Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte, upsets the National Party government and is banned from radio and television for a year; and Jeremy Maggs joins Radio 702 and adjusts badly to waking at 2.30 am to write news bulletins.
1993 – FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; the interim South African Constitution is approved by parliament; and Jeremy Maggs leaves journalism for what he thinks will be the wonderful, highly lucrative world of public relations (he lasts about 11 months before returning to radio).
1999 – Thabo Mbeki becomes the second democratic president of South Africa; South African Cathy O’Dowd becomes the first woman to summit Mount Everest from both the north and south sides; and Jeremy Maggs becomes the co-lead presenter of am2day , a three-hour television breakfast show on SABC 2 (that will flame out after a year).
2000 – Nicky Boje, Hansie Cronje and Herschelle Gibbs, along with other international cricket players and Indian bookmakers, are accused by the New Delhi police of cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy in alleged match-fixing; and Jeremy Maggs becomes the presenter of the hit television show Who Wants to be a Millionaire , and learns that the phrase ‘My Final Answer’ will follow him all his life.
2008 – The ANC recalls President Thabo Mbeki; and Jeremy Maggs, along with Redi Tlhabi, launches News Night and the new 24-hour news channel eNews Channel Africa, later to become eNCA.
2020 – COVID-19 cuts a swathe of destruction and death across the world; and Jeremy Maggs still finds himself behind the television news camera, albeit with less hair.
And so, as we begin our trip through media land,