The producer, the job hunter, the interview – and live television’s greatest cockup
Twenty years after BBC producer Elliott Gotkine put the wrong person in the hot seat he has written a book to tell the full story
What’s a bad day at the office for you? Coffee spilled over your laptop? Documents not saved and having to be retyped? For Elliott Gotkine, a day which started out just like any other in his role as a BBC television producer went on to see him put someone who had turned up for a job interview live on air to be questioned on a subject about which he knew nothing… and millions of people have watched it.
Gotkine has enjoyed an illustrious career in broadcasting, both as a producer and as a journalist. The former Habs boy went to Nottingham University, took a year out, went travelling and then got his first job as a runner on London Tonight. A fluent Spanish speaker, he also worked for Euro Money Publications and as the BBC’s South America correspondent based in Buenos Aires. He came back to London in 2005, doing on-air shifts and production shifts for the BBC’s Business and Economics Unit. On 8 May 2006 everything changed for him.
“Everyone thinks they know this story,” says Gotkine “but there are only two people in this world who know what really happened that day – Guy and me.” And now you too, if you read Gotkine’s just-published book The Wrong Guy.
On 8 May 2006 Guy Goma arrived at the BBC for a job interview as a data support cleanser. Technology expert Guy Kewney also turned up at the BBC to be interviewed on air about a dispute between Apple Inc and Apple Corps. Crucially, they checked in to different reception areas.
Ten minutes before Guy Kewney was due on air, Gotkine phoned down to reception to ask if he was there. The receptionist said yes. “I hang up the phone, run out of the newsroom, burst into the lobby, but I can’t see any sign of my guest Guy Kewney. I’d looked him up a few moments earlier and I’d seen a picture of a white guy with a red beard. I couldn’t see anyone fitting that description, so I said to the receptionist, which one is Guy Kewney and she points to a black guy. It’s now five minutes before we are on air, and I have to have my guest.”
Gotkine took (the wrong) Guy upstairs to the newsroom, handed him over to the makeup artist, then he went into the studio. Elliott went into the news gallery. “The interview begins, the lights go up. The penny drops when he sees his face on the monitor and he does the most indescribably dexterous and joyous and memorable facial expression I think that’s ever been seen on the small screen.”
This was the moment Guy Goma realised he was on live television. And down in the other reception area, on the tv screens, the other Guy, the right Guy, is horrified seeing someone that isn’t him being asked all these questions.
In trying to make sense of it all, Gotkine hit on a fun and very important fact. Guy Goma is from the Congo and his mother tongue is French. In French, Guy is pronounced ‘Gee’. ‘Gee’ also rhymes with ‘Kewney’ which was, of course, the surname of the person who was supposed to be on air. So when Gotkine asked the him if he was Guy Kewney, he heard the ‘ee’ and thought he said ‘Guy’ (pronounced Gee) and said yes.
He describes it as “a concatenation of cockups – each one individually was a million-to-one shot of happening, and they all conspired together to create this marvellous moment of joy, but also this incredibly embarrassing moment of epic fail”.
Gotkine was told he wouldn’t be allowed back on air for the foreseeable future. He now lives in Temple Fortune and has two kids aged 13 and 15. In 2013 while working for Bloomberg Television he was posted to Tel Aviv to be the Middle East editor. The family lived in Israel for 10 years but Gotkine eventually brought them back here because he felt the education opportunities were better.
To mark 20 years since that fateful day Gotkine decided to write a book. “You’re supposed to drift off into the sunset after your 15 minutes of fame, but Guy’s story has somehow endured for two decades. Another journalist managed to track him down and we met up.”
Gotkine told Guy he wanted to write a book and that they would split the royalties. They’ve spent a lot of time together since and Gotkine has “met his whole family to try and get to know the real Guy – aka the wrong guy. We come from very different backgrounds but somehow our lives came together. Our outlooks are surprisingly similar in terms of our sense that things happen for a reason.”
Could it still happen today? “In live television, whether it’s the BBC or another news organisation, these aren’t machines. To err is human,” says Gotkine. “I think today the story would have gone viral. But at the same time, because there is so much out there it’s very easy for things to get lost. I’m not exaggerating to say that hundreds of millions of people around the world must have seen this.
“I didn’t expect there to be wars raging or an energy crisis when my book came out but in these dark scary times if this story can be an antidote for people I’m happy for that. Although at the time it was very chastening for me and had negative repercussions in the short term on my career, there are very few people who can say that they’ve made millions of people around the world laugh.”
The Wrong Guy by Elliott Gotkine with Guy Goma is available on Amazon, £12.99
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