Three Old Hacks
Mihir Bose – former BBC Sports Editor, David Smith – Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and political commentator Nigel Dudley have been friends since they first met while working at Financial Weekly in 1980s. They have kept in touch regularly, setting the world to rights over various lunches and dinners. With coronavirus making that impossible, what do journalists do, deprived of long convivial lunches over a bottle of red wine or several? Why, podcast of course.Get in contact with the podcast by emailing threeoldhacks@outlook.com, we’d love to hear from you!
Episodes
50 episodes
What will Trump's second term in office look like?
The Three Old Hacks consider what we might expect from a second Trump presidency."Will it mean a more isolationist America?" asks MIhir Bose. What will it mean for Ukraine?Has he made political discourse coarser, or are the off-co...
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Season 1
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Episode 50
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44:28
40 years since the Brighton bomb
The Three Old Hacks have known each other for 40 years, having met when they were all working for Financial Weekly magazine in 1984, which is also the year David Smith went on to join The Times. He recalls how Nigel Lawson set the standard as a...
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Season 1
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Episode 49
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50:35
Downing St dysfunctional? Surely not!
With a certain cynicism born of decades of political reporting, the Three Old Hacks look at the way in which the press have descended on the newly elected Labour government like a pack of ravening wolves over its approach to the Prime Minister ...
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Season 1
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Episode 48
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45:35
Things Can Only Get Worse
Tony Blair's anthem was Things Can Only Get Better. Keir Starmer's appears to be Things Can Only Get Worse says David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times in this week's Three Old Hacks podcast, following on fr...
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Season 1
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Episode 47
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41:21
Far right violence on the streets of Britain
Author and journalist, former Sports Editor of the BBC Mihir Bose talks to fellow journalists Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley about the week’s events.“We haven’t seen that in a long tim...
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Season 1
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Episode 46
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57:52
“The ‘We’re here to serve’ mantra sounds a bit trite, but I think he really means it”
The Three Old Hacks, aka prolific author and former BBC Sports editor Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley give their analysis of Keir Starmer’s first few days in Government.“The...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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48:07
Three Old Hacks on the “boring” election campaign
The Three Old Hacks, aka prolific author and former BBC Sports editor Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley, can scarcely remember a more boring election campaign.“Boring, but imp...
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Season 1
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Episode 44
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47:01
Three Old Hacks on the general election
The past week has seen things go from bad to worse for Rishi Sunak, being called out for lying in the debate against Keir Starmer on the claim that Labour would increase taxes by £2,000 per household, then being accused of a lack of respect for...
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Season 1
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Episode 43
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51:21
Thank you Mr Crombie
Mihir Bose, former BBC Sports News editor, talks to David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times, and political commentator Nigel Dudley about his memoir Thank you Mr Crombie - Lessons in Guilt and Gratitude to the British.Mihir gr...
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Season 1
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Episode 42
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49:38
Prime Ministers in election mode - from the pipe-smoking Harold Wilson to the dishwasher-stacking Rishi Sunak
The Three Old Hacks have long memories. Former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley have been covering the nation's major events for decades and are well placed t...
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Season 1
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Episode 41
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41:59
But is it democracy?
The Three Old Hacks discuss the power of the people. Recorded the day after the chaotic Gaza vote in Parliament, they consider the safety of MPs, the leverage voters have to influence them, the impact of a powerful grassroots movement supported...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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38:00
Piers Morgan, hacking and the unseemly side of journalism
The intrusions into the private lives of celebrities rehashed by the phone hacking case brought by Prince Harry against Mirror Group Newspapers represent a "dreadful low" in the history of British journalism, says Mihir Bose.The High Cou...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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44:31
Holding the line for a free press
The Culture and Media Secretary Lucy Frazer has intervened to scrutinise the sale of the Daily Telegraph to a company backed by the Abu Dhabi ruling family, over concerns around public interest.Would they interfere with the edi...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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51:52
Three Men in a Boat navigating British Journalism
Our podcast with The Three Old Hacks, aka former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith, and political analyst Nigel Dudley, has been described as ‘the modern equivalent of Jerome K Jerome’s book
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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41:47
A perfect profession for spying
Former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley continue setting the world to rights with their podcast Three Old Hacks. This week their subject is spi...
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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43:52
What the Nigel Farage ‘debanking’ saga tells us about British journalism
Much has been written and said about the Nigel Farage ‘debanking’ story. Thinking a client is a ‘disingenuous grifter’ or a xenophobic racist is not supposed to be a good enough reason for a bank to deny someone an account.But what abou...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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41:17
Gamesmanship and Protest
The Three Old Hacks, aka Sunday Times Economics Editor David Smith, former Sports News editor at the BBC and author of many books about sport, Mihir Bose, and political commentator Nigel Dudley, have been chewing over the w...
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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54:58
Is the coronation still going on? Sorry, I missed a bit, the dog needed a walk
Flags flying upside down, Rishi Sunak being criticised for 'not being grounded in our culture' despite his perfect reading from the scriptures at the coronation, and Nigel being accused of being a Marxist for taking the dog for a walk dur...
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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46:24
Gwyneth, Boris and the economy, stupid!
From Gwyneth Paltrow to the protests in France and Israel and the perennial subjects of Boris Johnson’s career and the state of the economy, the Three Old Hacks, aka former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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27:10
Three Old Hacks consider the week’s news
As the war in Ukraine marks its grim one-year anniversary, the Three Old Hacks, aka former Sports News editor at the BBC Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley, discuss whether we hav...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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46:00
Nadhim Zahawi, tax avoidance and embarrassing the Prime Minister
Mihir Bose – former BBC Sports Editor, David Smith – Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and political commentator Nigel Dudley discuss the hot topic- Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairsThey thought he should jump, and apologise for embarrassin...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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53:55
Opinions of superior excellence
“No nation in Europe is more haughty and disdainful, nor more conceited in an opinion of its superior excellence.”This quote from a French Viscount about Britain some 400 years ago reminds us nothing much has changed, says political anal...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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46:11
A World Cup and a Budget
A football World Cup and a Budget, what better subjects could Mihir Bose, former sports news editor at the BBC, Sunday Times Economics Editor David Smith and political analyst Nigel Dudley wish for, to talk about?Let's just say, in a pub...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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46:16
The revolving door of Number 11
The Sunday Times Economics Editor David Smith was with fellow ‘old hacks’ Mihir Bose, former sports news editor at the BBC, and political analyst Nigel Dudley recording their podcast for The Chiswick Calendar when the news broke on Friday that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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48:41
Delivery, Delivery, Delivery
The Three Old Hacks, who regularly review the week's news for us, recorded a podcast on Thursday morning, before the Queen's death was announced."Spare us from this false positivism", says Nigel Dudley, commenting on Liz Truss's keynote ...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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42:31