Sir Paul McCartney's son James gives 'excruciating' television interview on BBC Breakfast

The musician, 35, replied to answers in mono-syllables and appeared confused by the word 'prerequisite'

Sir Paul McCartney's musician son James (Getty Images)

James McCartney gave a car-crash interview on BBC Breakfast this morning as he tried to promote his new album.

Presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid were forced to do most of the talking during the short segment with Beatles legend Paul McCartney’s 35-year-old son.

Twitter users dubbed the interview as “excruciating” and a “PR disaster”.

The presenters began by talking about his long US tour. “That sounds pretty tiring,” asked Reid, to which McCartney replied: “Yeah.”

Reid pressed, “Was it?” and McCartney offered: “No it was OK. It was good fun.”

Following a clip of McCartney singing, Turnbull pondered whether as a McCartney, it was a prerequisite to play “all sorts of different instruments”.

After some confusion over the word ‘prerequisite’, McCartney said: “Is it? Not really. But for me it is… No, I don’t know.”

And when did he start playing? “When I was about five. Specifically when I was about 20.”

Having exhausted the usual questions one might ask of a musician, Turnbull turned to the credits section of McCartney’s new album Me for inspiration.

“Paul McCartney, who’s he?” joked Turnbull. “Oh he’s my father,” deadpanned McCartney.

When asked whether his father was a “friendly critic” of his work, the singer said: “Constructive criticism, definitely yeah.”

A brace of tweets followed the unfortunate segment. “James McCartney has become fodder for media trainers across the country on how NOT to do an interview,” one user said. “What a great interview, we’ve learned so much!” another tweeted.

In an interview with the Daily Mail last week, McCartney was slightly more open.

He admitted his relationship with his father’s ex-wife Heather Mills was “not very good”.

“I didn’t like her,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to say anything negative about her because she’s good mother to Beatrice [Sir Paul’s daughter by Mills] and that’s the most important thing.”