I interviewed GB News host Darren Grimes the other day in my new Heretics Studio. The setting is even more intimate, making for an eerily unique experience. What I mean is, in real life, you rarely hold eye contact with someone in such close proximity for an hour. In the new set-up, we’re on a couple of medieval chairs with total blackness all around us, aside from the huge spotlights on our faces - while my guest reveals themselves (metaphorically!).
I’m sure I’ll be mocked for saying all this, but I don’t care. That intimacy is something I’ve begun to notice after 400 episodes (dating back through my old channel). Outside of podcasting, I’m an introvert. I rarely leave the house. To have a couple of days of intensive interviewing each month is hard work and high pressure. But it is starting to feel like a saving grace.
It’s why I’m so happy with the decision to ensure that every episode of Heretics - since it started 6 months ago - be in person.
Here’s how Darren surprised me:
He’s A Really Lovely Guy
This is far from the first time that a social commentator portrayed by the legacy media as a right-wing fascist psychopath has turned out to be extremely polite, thoughtful and kind. Darren is viscerally authentic…
At one point in the interview, I told him that if an audience had been present, they’d have given him a standing ovation. He had just described the pain of growing up in a homophobic society…before things got better…only for it to go full circle, culminating in (exclusive) him being banned from two gay bars in Durham for…homophobia. He equates the transing of gay kids to radical Islamism in Iran.
He’s Resilient
Darren grew up working class on a council estate. What he has made of his life thus far is a source of inspiration to those back home. But it wasn’t easy. It rarely is. He took all manner of hits along the way, including beatings by bullies for his sexuality.
Being Gay Isn’t Interesting
It would have been easy for Darren to respond to the bullies by either hiding in the closet, or joining the flanks of youngsters desperate to use their sexuality to make them seem interesting. Yet, Darren explains that he considers his sexuality the least interesting thing about him. One thing we know he’s not attracted to is identity politics.
He is Aghast About Tavistock
When Darren speaks, it’s hard not to listen and empathise. He isn’t just angry about the homophobia and child experimentation carried out by the Tavistock gender clinic; he really feels for the de-transitioners and confused young adults who have been let down by these so-called doctors.
Paid subscribers to this page get the ad-free audio version of the podcast 19 hours before the video goes live on YouTube.
Watch a preview 11-minute clip of the best part here.
The full video is out at 7pm UK | 2pm ET on Monday 1st July. Head over to Heretics to watch it.
Are you looking forward to this episode? A fan of Darren’s? And what do you make of the new Heretics Studio? Let me know in the comments.
Upcoming Guests: Katharine Birbalsingh, James Dreyfus
Darren Grimes Is NOT What He Seems