DAGGERS DRAWN: Mike Graham, left, and Porky Parry
EXPRESSMEN Mike Graham and Mike Parry, who formed a popular radio partnership on TalkSport, have fallen out big time.
The origin of the dispute, which broke out on Twitter, is unclear but seems to be centred on comments in Mike Graham’s book On the Road which is due to be released next Christmas.
Their radio partnership broke up when Graham moved to host his own show in the prime mid-morning slot on TalkSport’s sister station TalkRADIO. The programme is in direct competition with another morning chat show hosted by Expressman James O’Brien on rival station LBC.
Parry, known as Porky, co-hosts a TalkSPORT show with Alan Brazil which he bills as Alan and the Porkmeister.
The two Mikes met while working on the Daily Express in London. Parry spent some time as a reporter before being appointed news editor.
A passage in Graham's book reads:
"The problem for Mike Parry was that he wasn’t actually very bright. He was fifth in the pecking order in his own office. He was despised by every photographer he ever worked with and was universally known as a man who couldn’t be trusted.
"Aside from that his time in New York was uneventful. He broke no stories, he came up with no great features and in London he was treated as very much the junior.
"When he met me he became very chummy. He asked me to feed him all the news that I found out about for a very substantial fee that he could pay me for the Express.
"I liked him at first. It took me a while to work out that he was a complete bullshitter.”
Cynics have wondered whether the entire affair has been engineered to publicise Graham’s book.
EDUCATING ARCHIE: According to Wikipedia, Mike Graham’s first name is actually Archibald but, of course, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
The tweets below give a flavour of the spat.
