Thought For The Day #47

Broadcast 30th of April 2015 on BBC Radio Bristol

We all know politicians love a good photo opportunity or sound bite. Oh look there’s Ed Miliband chilling out with Russell Brand. And did I just hear David Cameron casually joke about supporting West Ham, or was it Aston Villa, I can’t remember?

It’s at times like this that I wish someone like Bill Murray was a politician. He’s that actor from such films as Ghost Busters and Groundhog Day. I was watching an old episode of Graham Norton recently where Bill Murray was a guest. He told some wonderful stories. My favourite was about a time he was filming in Berlin and, on a whim, just decided to take a 5 hour train journey to Prague. The rest of the cast thought he was crazy, but he still made it back the next morning for 9am. Bill just wanted an adventure. I like to imagine him, as a happy as Larry, just quietly gazing out the window watching Europe wizz past.

It turns out that there are loads of stories on the Internet of ordinary people hanging out with Bill. He just seems to love meeting people and doing normal things with them like; helping move boxes in the local post office, chatting to a stranger for hours in a sauna or shooting the breeze in the laundrette whilst he washes his clothes.

Generally, my measure of a person, is whether I would invite them round my house for dinner. I can’t say I’d enjoy most politician’s company, but something tells me Murray would be a wonderful dinner guest.