The former Sky News presenter, 67, said he wouldn’t name names but it was clear which famous newsmen he was referring to – while he didn’t spare John Sergeant for his dodgy dance moves either
Dermot Murnaghan has launched an acerbic attack on his former newsreader colleagues who have taken money for appearing in adverts he says are ripping off customers.
The veteran broadcaster, who left Sky News in 2023 after 15 years at the helm, refused to name names when he slammed “former news people” who are flogging overpriced gold sovereigns. But he was clearly referring to former fellow colleagues Michael Buerk and Nicholas Owen, who have both appeared in commercials selling gold coins for Hattons of London.
Speaking to the Mirror, Dermot, 67, said: “When you’re a live newsreader you’re banned by Ofcom from advertising anything, because you have a degree of credibility. But once you stop, you can, and some of my former colleagues do. Some of the things they advertise, well, I’m going to leave it there, I wouldn’t”.
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But went on: “I may be cutting off a lucrative revenue stream for myself, but gold sovereigns at four times the price that they actually do cost, yeah, I wouldn’t do that.
“Let me say to anyone who sees this, you can get gold sovereigns, if you want them – I don’t have any, but just look up the price – cheaper than those being pumped towards you by some former news people.”
Hattons of London, a website which sells commemorative gold coins and sovereigns, proudly claims Michael Buerk is their “most recurring presenter” who has helped them sell products since 2020, including the 2020 VE Day 75th Anniversary Gold Sovereign Range and the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Tribute Gold One Eighth Sovereign.
Buerk, whose reporting of the Ethiopian famine in in 1984 inspired Band Aid, was anchor of the BBC News at Ten until his retirement in 2024.
Nicholas Owen, who worked for ITV Evening News and BBC news role before retiring in 2019 after a career spanning over 50 years, has also worked for Hattons, advertising their St George and the Dragon Bi-Metallic Gold Sovereign Range in 2022.
Since his own retirement, Dermot has carved a different career path as the presenter of several popular true crime series on Crime+Investigation. He’s back on screens next week with the fifth run of Killer Britain with Dermot Murnaghan, which delves into some of Britain’s most chilling murder cases.
But the veteran newsman admitted it’s still “incredibly frustrating” to just be a normal TV viewer and not in the interviewer’s seat. I’m throwing soft shoes at the television screen and knocking the radio over when I hear it, because that’s my obsession, I can’t give it up.
“If I hear another politician say ‘nothing’s off the table’ or ‘we’re doing this for the national interest”, I’m just screaming, ‘Of course you are, but what are you doing?! What the heckity-heck does that mean?’”
And he didn’t spare another fellow newsreader, John Sergeant, famous after his retirement for his cringy dance moves on Strictly – something else Dermot said he won’t do.
Dermot revealed he once had secret tests for the BBC show. He said: “I had some meetings with the producers and I did one of the secret squirrel test dances, where you get to dance with one of the wonderful dancers in a blacked out rehearsal room in central London, four or five months before the production
“I did mine and I turned to the producers sitting at the edge of the floor and said to them, ‘You can see I have no rhythm, I can’t hold the tune, and I certainly can’t dance. And they chucked and went, ‘Exactly.’ They obviously want someone just like that.”
But he said he couldn’t bring himself to embarrass himself on live TV. He said: “I don’t think I could do it. Every season has an old guy, you know. Although no-one goes as far as John Sergeant. Who could ever forget that? Dragging his poor dancer around the room like a coat at a party.”
- The new series of Killer Britain, presented by Dermot Murnaghan starts Monday 12th May on the Crime + Investigation channel
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