Never send an ignorant plebeian to do a classicist's job...

I've never exactly been bowled over by Sarah Montague as a Today presenter. Placed in a really firey interview situation, she stumbles, can't think on her feet, and often pursues pre-determined lines of questioning blindly, without responding to what's actually going on in front of her. (I'm not saying I could do any better at her job, by the way. I'm just saying there are other people who could).

Anyway, my level of impressedness slipped another peg today, during her interview with Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham and author of Inventing the Barbarian, and a man called Simon Armitage who has just written a dramatic adaptation of The Odyssey for broadcast during the Olympics. She began by asking Simon Armitage, 'Was it difficult adapting the play for modern audiences?'

Slap on wrist. Back to school!

Later on, she said The Odyssey was 'considered to be the second story ever', I suppose on the basis that she thinks it's the 'sequel' to The Iliad.

It's also transpired over the last couple of days, in relation to a story about a Swiss Alphorn, that Bob Holness, no less, used to be a regular 'freelance' presenter of Today for quite some years. The mind boggles!

EDIT: The clip can now be heard here.