Miles Harrison: a student interview with Brian Clough

A working life in sports broadcasting provides so many moments to treasure. But, even after all this time, the question that I am asked most is not ‘what is your favourite game?’ or ‘who is your favourite player?’. No, the question at the top of the list is ‘how did you get into it, where did it all start?’. My answer to that involves one of the legends of British sport and there is not a week goes by that I don’t think how grateful I am to this individual. So, here is my ‘how it all began’ story…

‘I have to provide a radio interview as part of the application process’, I told my parents, ‘it doesn’t have to be with anybody famous, a member of your own family will do, they just want to hear what I sound like’.

The year was 1987 and I was a student in York, desperately wanting to land a place on a postgraduate journalism course as a future career in sports broadcasting had become, by then, an obsession. The look of horror on my parents’ faces suggested that they weren’t that keen on being the interview subject. Then, it struck me, it didn’t have to be with anybody famous - but what if it was? And, what if I went right to the top of the tree? In those days, for me, that tree was firmly rooted in a forest, Nottingham Forest Football Club to be exact. Their manager, Brian Clough, was adored by the fans and by the media too. An interview with the great man would surely be the passport to the career of my dreams.

I summoned up the courage to write to Mr. Clough’s secretary saying that, if he gave me an interview, I was certain that it would propel me onto the course. I heard nothing back for a week or two and then, out of the blue, my Mum called me to the phone. In a rather startled tone, she said that Brian Clough wanted me to make an appointment to see him. The dream became one step closer.

Having returned to York for the new term, the day of the interview finally arrived. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, had a car, the old Peugeot 104 and one dark winter morning we rattled our way to Nottingham, my radio cassette recorder perched on my nervous lap. The machine normally belted out The Smiths but, on this day, it was to record the musings of one of sport’s greatest talkers.

When I arrived at the City Ground, I couldn’t have looked any more callow. I perched nervously outside the manager’s office, the one I’d seen in pictures on the days of big signings and I couldn’t quite believe I was there. The door opened, a dog ran out and then a familiar voice boomed, ‘come in young man’. And, there he was, the unmistakable figure of the Forest boss, clad in his famous green sweat top. My heart was racing as fast as any player who had waited to learn his fate from Mr. Clough as to whether he’d made the Cup Final cut.

The interview, if you can call it that, was no easy ride. There was no putting me at ease and nor should there have been. He wanted to see how I would react, if I could do what I said I wanted to go on and do. But, if the questions were understandably a little rough around the edges, the answers were most certainly not. I would grow to learn that an interview is as good as the interviewee and, as long as I have been or ever will be in broadcasting, regardless of the sport, I will never interview anyone quite like Brian Clough. He was pure gold every time but, importantly for me, that’s what his heart was made of too. That day, Cloughie knew full well what he was doing: the constructive stress he was putting me under and the career path he was trying to put me on.

‘We knew we’d give you a place after you sent us that Brian Clough interview,’ said the Head of Journalism when I finally came to meet him on the day of my course interview in London. ‘He was terrific, wasn’t he?’.

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

A year later, as part of my training, I was assigned to work for the local radio station in Nottingham and, when there, I asked Brian Clough for another interview but this time in a more formal working capacity. Again, he said ‘yes’ and, again, he was magical to listen to. After we’d finished, I cheekily ventured, ‘can I send this to BBC Radio Sport in London, I’m sure it will help my career?’. He paused, sighed and then cracked a smile, ‘go on then, but do it now, before I change my mind!’. Of course, he was never going to, he knew exactly what he was doing.

A few years later, the Head of Radio Sport said, ‘we knew we’d give you a job after you sent us that Brian Clough interview. He was terrific wasn’t he?’. Sound familiar? Yes, I have been truly grateful ever since.

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