In praise of Peston

Yum Yum! Rocky Road!

Financial reports on the news can be pretty dull.

If you don’t give a FTSE about stock market movements and are uninterested in the interest rates, only one man can help...

The BBC’s Economics Editor, Robert Peston, can enliven even the most dreary of financial updates, injecting his own inimitable presentation and personal styles into the subject matter in a way that leaves you smiling, so clear is his enthusiasm for the subject at hand.

A recent report on the likelihood of a future interest rate rise could easily have been a by-the-very-low-numbers snooze-fest, but some footage of a conveyor belt of chocolatey produce zipping by and Pesto enthusiastically saying “Yum Yum, Rocky Road!” over the top certainly got my attention (although I now have a semi-permanent hankering for cake).

So effective was this introduction, that I’ve now adopted it as my new favourite phrase for describing anything good. Congratulations Rob – my wife thinks I’m now even more barking that I was previously, and it’s all your flamboyant fault.

I can see distinct parallels between Peston and Doctor Magnus Pike, the madly enthusiastic scientist who popped up a lot on children’s TV a few decades ago, all waving arms, excitable delivery and a clear passion for communicating how jolly interesting whatever it is they are talking about is.

Magnus added his voice to a Thomas Dolby song called “She Blinded Me With Science”; surely it can only be a matter of time before Rhianna has Pesto’s vocal acrobatics providing a suitably fiscal subtext.

No-one delivers their report in quite the same way as the 55 year old, Honourable Robert (although, wisely, he doesn’t use the title). With the BBC nearly a decade now, Pesto’s rising stock paid dividends when he ascended to the giddy heights of Economics Editor in 2013. Not everyone is a fan though – even the Beeb’s management felt it necessary for him to see specialists to try and iron out his eccentricities.

Happily, they failed. The waving hands, exaggerated vocal delivery and – new to the Pesto Magic Mix this year – hair-do with a life of it’s own, continue to make the financial slot essential viewing.

Ah, the hair. Until recently, Pesto’s look was resolutely conformist. Suit, tidy haircut. Blend in. Not any more – the bit on top now has an ever-changing life of it’s own and a fine pair of big specs augment a look that screams “I know my numbers... and I’ve got yours!”

Indeed he has. So much so, that he has a devout following on Twitter (including an account called @robpestonhair) and has become an unlikely sex symbol for those who like their men intellectually stimulating, vocally intriguing and follically devil-may-care.

A quick Google for an image of Pesto (don’t ask) reveals a whole category devoted purely to his barnet.

So who cares if China breaks, banks bungle, or quantitative easing is less than pleasing?

When you’ve got Robert Peston to explain, it all seems to add up nicely.

This post first appeared as my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 4th of September 2015, where it was slightly retitled as "Praise for Peston". You can view the edited version used by the paper on their website here.

This one has an interesting genesis. After enjoying Bob's "Yum Yum!" on the 10pm BBC news, I tweeted my appreciation of his offbeat style, and was retweeted by the @robpestonhair account, which precipitated some tweetage between me and some of Pesto's adoring fanbase.

He is one entertaining chap, recently appearing with a plaster visible under the bridge of his glasses. I like to imagine he headbutted an irritating banker or something... anyway, there's no way I couldn't follow up all that fiscal fun with a column, so there you go.

(Still on the letter B of the CD A-Z: The Beatles' "Live at the BBC", appropriately enough.)

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