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<\/p>\nHe went from being the BBC’s long-running political editor to the voice of Radio 4’s flagship Today Programme.<\/p>\n
But despite over 15 years at the corporation and a top-grade CV, Nick Robinson has admitted he cried after his first appearance on Today because he didn’t think he was good enough.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old journalist, who took over from James Naughtie in 2015, said his voice had been so ‘scratchy’ during an interview with David Cameron that he was overcome with emotion.<\/p>\n
Nick had had treatment for a bronchial carcinoid tumour and had lost his voice.<\/p>\n
‘My first day was pretty memorable, not very relaxing. I just had cancer. Good news, the cancer had gone, but the voice had also gone,’ he said on The Today Podcast.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Candid: Nick Robinson, 60, has admitted he cried after his first appearance on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today Programme because he didn’t think he was good enough<\/p>\n
‘Frankly, I should’ve given a bit longer to recover. There had been a terrorist attack in Paris, a bomb had gone off.<\/p>\n
‘The Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to come on to react, and that was my very first interview. And as I started the interview, I thought my voice is just not performing.<\/p>\n
‘And I came off air \u2013 I’m not sure I’ve actually said this before \u2013 I came off air and had planned to go for brunch outside, get a fry-up to celebrate and I cried.’<\/p>\n
Co-host Amol Rajan asked if he had cried due to being sad and ‘scared that you’d screwed up’ or if it was the ‘culmination of a long-held dream’.<\/p>\n
‘All of the above,’ Nick responded. ‘But in that moment \u2013 and you’re not always rational in these moments \u2013 I thought ‘That’s it. That just wasn’t good enough’. I thought, you know, if I were them, I might say ‘Hmm, thanks but no thanks’.’<\/p>\n
Despite his doubts, Nick said Today editor Jamie Angus had ‘rushed over, grabbed a cup of coffee and couldn’t have been nicer about it’.<\/p>\n
He said: ‘It takes other people to say ‘Don’t worry’ and in fact, I took a couple of days off to get the voice working a bit better because I’d got a heavy cold that’s why. It was particularly bad.’<\/p>\n
Nick said he hadn’t cried after a show since and now only wells up ‘after sentimental movies’ or ‘things with the kids’.<\/p>\n
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How it was: ‘My first day was pretty memorable, not very relaxing. I just had cancer . Good news, the cancer had gone, but the voice had also gone’ explained Nick<\/p>\n
The broadcaster, who has three children with wife Pippa, became the BBC’s chief political correspondent in 1999 before moving to ITN and then back to the BBC in 2005.<\/p>\n
Amol, who joined Today in 2021 and took over from Jeremy Paxman as the host of University Challenge this year, said he suffered a panic attack after his first his first shift on the programme.<\/p>\n
‘I turned up in state of some emotional disrepair because I couldn’t sleep and I came in slightly freaking out to be honest. I was just happy to survive,’ he said.<\/p>\n
Amol, 40, said his anxiety is linked to trouble sleeping at night.<\/p>\n
‘I do have trouble sleeping and sometimes I’ve had four or five hours, never more than that, and sometimes I’ve had one or two,’ he said.<\/p>\n
‘Whenever you talk about anything that’s in the very, very big category that we now call mental health, I’m very wary of playing a victim or pretending that I’ve got anything special wrong with me.<\/p>\n
‘I’ve got lots of amazing support and also I think there are people with much more serious problems than me but I will say that I had a massive panic attack, which I’ve talked about a bit in the past, before my first outing.<\/p>\n
‘I’ve spoken to lots of professionals since as I’ve tried to sort this out and that did cause what some people would call a trauma, others would call an injury, it basically created a groove in my brain which associated the Today Programme with a difficulty in sleeping.<\/p>\n
‘Generally speaking \u2013 I haven’t said this in public before \u2013 generally speaking, I do the show having not really been to bed.<\/p>\n
‘But I do have an issue with lack of sleep which I’m trying to conquer and I figure the more I do programme the better I’ll get but I seem to keep having children.’<\/p>\n
Amol has four children under the age of seven with wife Charlotte Faircloth.<\/p>\n
While Amol gets up at 3am and is in a car on the way to work by 3.30am, Nick said he gives himself just 15 minutes to get out the house.<\/p>\n
‘I learnt from John Humphries \u2013 I shave the night before, I’ve showered the night before, my clothes are ready the night before,’ he said.<\/p>\n