We should have rehearsed the hamster

By Martha Kearney
Presenter, BBC Newsnight

Watch the chaos

We sat rather dejected in the lobby of the British Library at midnight having our own little debrief on Thursday's programme.

"We should have rehearsed the hamster" I said.

Aditya the producer agreed. Then we both burst out laughing - that had to be a "drop the dead donkey" moment when the political editor and economics producer of Newsnight were discussing the stage management of a giant rodent.

It had all been going so well at the Big Read All About it event when we were announcing the winner of the front page competition - from a shortlist including Gotcha and Freddie Starr ate my hamster.

Freddie Starr couldn't make it so who better to present me with the traditional gold envelope on a red cushion than a hamster? (Or a poor work experience student who'd thought he'd be learning about macroeconomics rather than am dram?)

Blank

When the climax arrived and the studio wanted to cut across to me, all the gallery could see was me waving my arms around and shouting "Where's the hamster?" He eventually appeared and walked across to me in a painfully stately way (seeming like forever on live TV).

I grabbed the gold envelope and prepared to announce the result in reverse order. Except the card was totally blank. From the deepest recesses of my memory I tried to recall what I'd been told earlier - yes Gotcha was somewhere in the top three and the Telegraph had won.

I went over to Dame Pauline Neville Jones - surely this doyenne of the foreign office would calm things down? But maybe the hamster moment had got to her - she couldn't remember the crucial date for the front page - the day after September 11th 2001.

It was only when I got to Charles Moore the eloquent former editor of the Telegraph that order was finally restored.

Forget the glamour of awards ceremonies for me. Bring me central lobby at Westminster any time.