{"id":4426,"date":"2020-06-29T15:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T15:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/flatmate-HQ\/?p=4426"},"modified":"2020-07-02T08:11:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T08:11:31","slug":"an-interview-with-andrew-gold-tv-presenter-journalist-from-highgate-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/flatmate-HQ\/an-interview-with-andrew-gold-tv-presenter-journalist-from-highgate-london\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Andrew Gold – TV Presenter & Journalist from Highgate, London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a TV presenter and journalist who speaks five languages and has made documentaries for the BBC, HBO and several other channels. I\u2019ve always been fascinated by people who think differently from me, so I\u2019ve tried to get to the bottom of that with such eccentric and controversial characters as an abusive exorcist, a religious pro-lifer and a UFO believers. Nothing compares to the feeling of finishing an edit, after months of working on a story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Andrew Gold on YouTube.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andrew and a colleague on a shoot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ANDREW FROM HIGHGATE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\ndid your love for making documentaries begin? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teenager, I was really into not only\nLouis Theroux, but writers like Jack London and, later, Jon Ronson. While most\npeople around me seemed to be thinking in such polemic and divisive ways, here\nwere writers looking to get to the humanity of much-maligned and ostracised\nfigures. My first writing gig was a job at The Sun, and they let me practice\nworking with a camera. I didn\u2019t much care for the newspaper, and went off to\nColombia to start learning languages – I found the way that presenters talked\nto foreign interviewees through interpreters a little old hat, and wanted to\nchange things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\ndid you grow up and has it influenced your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Elstree and Watford. My parents\ndivorced when I was 9, and my dad moved to Edgware and, later, Barnet. These\nare very multi-cultural areas and I was lucky enough to go to school with\npeople from every conceivable background. It taught me from a young age to\nreally try to see people for the fascinating individuals they are, and to look\npast ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does\nwhere you currently live influence your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highgate and Muswell Hill are gorgeous, and\nthe great thing is, you\u2019re never far from creative types. There\u2019s a posh,\nexclusive side to Highgate, but there are also a lot of artists and bohemian\ntypes who rent rooms in rustic old mansions. I lived next-door to my cranky\nneighbour for a year before he invited me in one day to show me a film he\u2019d\nmade with Danny Dyer. On the other side lived a fashion colourist whose job it\nis to tell people what colours to wear. \u2018Autumnal,\u2019 she told me. \u2018Tomato red.\u2019\nI went and bought a red jumper and never wore it. The other thing is that\nyou\u2019re never far from genuinely inspiring people – just up the road is the\ntribute to George Michael, while plenty of bars in the area were frequented by\nAmy Winehouse and Pete Doherty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\nyour proudest achievement to date?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being friends with Ideal Flatmate co-founder\nTom. Seriously, I\u2019ve been able to keep the same core group of friends since I\nwas five years old – Tom included – and that\u2019s something you can\u2019t buy. At the\nsame time, I\u2019ve lived in ten different cities around the world, so I\u2019m also\nproud of the diversity of friends I\u2019ve been lucky enough to make. I\u2019m able to\nbe a totally different person in each language and friends group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, screw all of that, I\u2019m most proud of my exorcism documentary going out on BBC 3. Before the Beeb bought it, it got into festivals and I got flown to Texas to watch it in a big cinema there. Over a million people have seen the documentary on the BBC, but nothing compares to sitting in that cinema and hearing people laugh and recoil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Andrew during filming of his BBC documentary on Exorcism<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who\/what\ninfluences you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to sound like a broken record,\nbut again, I\u2019d have to say my friends. It\u2019s very rare that I idolise anybody I\ndon\u2019t know. Maybe the exceptions are people like Gervais, or writers like Zadie\nSmith or Margaret Atwood, who are heroes to me. But when I release a new video,\nI\u2019m thinking about my family…my brother Michael is one of my biggest (and\nonly fans), and my closest friends. It\u2019s very tough to make any money in this\nindustry, but knowing that the works I make will go out to my friends, family\nand new viewers\/subscribers on my YouTube page makes the 20-hour work days\nworthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\nis your favourite place to eat\/drink in London <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a big drinker, but I do like my food.\nI\u2019ve been vegetarian for a few years now, but the veggie option at Honest\nBurgers in Kings Cross brings me back to my years by the asados of Argentina.\nYou\u2019ll also often find me catching up with Tom at the Brewhouse Kitchen on\nHighbury Corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\nwould you recommend people to visit in London<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the city centre. I\u2019d just say, wait for a\nsunny day and walk through the entire labyrinth of parks. I love ambling along\nthe banks of the canal by Camden. People are always surprised by how green\nLondon is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWhat are you working on at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since lockdown, a lot of TV production has\nbeen put on hold, and the industry\u2019s been spiralling into decline for a few\nyears now. So, I\u2019ve just started my own YouTube channel. It\u2019s far more work\nthan I imagined, so I\u2019m up until 4am most nights, but it\u2019s extremely rewarding.\nGiven that, I\u2019d really appreciate if you do feel like subscribing etc at the\nbelow link!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve just written a book about pedophilia that\nI hope to publish soon (I\u2019ve had some crazy experiences with people I\u2019ve been\ninvestigating) and just finished a film about abortion that is now with a sales\nagent and expected to go on a festival tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\ncould live anywhere in the world, where would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no place like home. There\u2019s no place like home…I think the older I get, the more I like the idea of settling and raising a family near my own family. My partner is Argentine, and is quite traditional – I\u2019ve stolen her from her own family and feel bad about that, so the least I can offer her is my kin. I\u2019ve already lived in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Deutschland, England and France. I\u2019m doing a bit of an alphabet thing (if you\u2019ll excuse the native translation of Germany). But, I\u2019m in my 30s now, and would maybe like to move somewhere a little further out and more affordable, and there are some nice parts of Whetstone where my friend Josh just moved, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\nmakes London stand out to different places?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greenery is great, the inclusivity…but –\nand this is more of an English thing – the sense of humour is really something.\nPeople knock London because it\u2019s the capital city, and that\u2019s something that\nhappens in every country. There\u2019s always a perception that the capital is\nsomehow greedy, too fast-paced and, I guess, cynical. I know people will\ndisagree (vehemently) with me, but I don\u2019t see London like that at all. I\u2019ve\nalways found the people extremely agreeable, polite, funny and helpful. Of\ncourse, there are about a bazillion people, so you\u2019ll get all kinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\nthe most important and significant spot for you and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from White Hart Lane (eugh, footie\nchat\u2026), I\u2019d have to say South Bank. I know it\u2019s not very original and I know\nthe Kinks and whoever else have eulogised it enough. But, it\u2019s where I had one\nof my first dates with my partner. We were both living in Argentina back then,\nbut happened to be in London at the same time. We walked along the riverbanks\nin the snow, which was a huge contrast to our first date, which had been at a\npolo raunch in the peak of the Argentine summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any\nhidden gems in your area?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Village Square Karaoke Bar is a really\nlow-key joint that you\u2019d miss if you didn\u2019t know about it. I went to a few\nreally cool birthday parties there that were actually…fun<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are\nthere any pieces of your work that reflect a certain place in London?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of my documentaries are abroad, because\nthat\u2019s my niche – languages. But I am from London, and in each film I\u2019ve made,\nI\u2019m the proxy through which the audience can see these foreign and eccentric\ncharacters. You can take the boy out of London\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I did a podcast I\u2019m really proud of – it\u2019s on my channel – with Emily Green, who escaped the Hasidic Jewish community. If you listen to that, you get a real sense of what it\u2019s like in Stamford Hill, a part of North London so shrouded in sect-like religion – both Jewish and Muslim – that it\u2019s quite unlike anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where\nto find ANDREW GOLD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Docs and Pods: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC3aiQJmnJ8wamobGcsBz6Ww?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndrewGold_ok<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also get my podcasts on Apple\nPodcasts, Spotify and other platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intro I\u2019m a TV presenter and journalist who speaks five languages and has made documentaries for the BBC, HBO and several other channels. I\u2019ve always been fascinated by people who think differently from me, so I\u2019ve tried to get to the bottom of that with such eccentric and controversial characters as an abusive exorcist, a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “An Interview with Andrew Gold – TV Presenter & Journalist from Highgate, London”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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