Our essential job to shout down wicked whispers and Al lies

ONE of the perks of being a journalist is that you get to hear the wickedest of whispers before anyone else.

- BRIAN READE

Some of which are even true. Not the one about the Hollywood star and his penchant for rodents or the tape of the BBC newsreader and her colourful coital howls.

But the England football manager who left his platform shoes outside a Swedish TV star's bedroom to let her nanny know he was testing the strength of her mattress springs, and the prime minister who let Downing Street become Party Central during Covid, turned out to be true.