Page 3 Profile: Lord Black, former media mogul

 

Wednesday 30 January 2013 13:05 GMT
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Back for another bruising encounter with Paxman?

Last year, Black was released from an American prison after serving three years for defrauding investors. But despite numerous media opportunities, there was no contrition from the former owner of The Daily Telegraph. Instead, he protested his innocence, enduring taunts from Ian Hislop on Have I Got News for You and labelling Sky News's Adam Boulton a "jackass".

In an alternately hilarious and cringeworthy sparring session with Jeremy Paxman, he described the University Challenge host as a "priggish, gullible British fool". After all that, you wouldn't expect Black to be keen on taking to the airwaves once again, but the 68-year-old is set to become a talk-show host.

Replacing Jeremy Kyle?

Sadly not. He has been hired by the Canadian cable network VisionTV to present The Zoomer – Television for Boomers With Zip, a show aimed at people over 50. Among the topics up for discussion are gun control, the world's financial crisis, and the US justice system.

Black said: "I give an editorial opinion and interview somebody and there are going to be a couple of panels. It only takes a couple of hours to shoot. It's certainly not a full-time job." His role begins in the spring.

Any guests lined up?

He said Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger would be "happy to be our foreign-policy commentator" – though in the pilot episode he interviewed the rather less lofty Donald Trump. Of course, the star will be Conrad Black himself, though he insisted, unconvincingly, that he's "certainly not entering into this with any thought of settling scores with anyone".

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