Why seeing a Eurovision performance in 1984 was an 'epiphany moment' for Rob Rinder

Barrister and TV star Rob Rinder joined Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio for Golden Years, where he chosen 1984. He revealed why it was a pivotal year for him, with one Eurovision performance in particular. He also told Ken about his new book - The Defence - and how he went about becoming an author, starting his career as a barrister.

Rob revealed how there was one Eurovision-winning song in particular that made him realise he was "a little bit different".

"It is 1984, the Eurovision Song Contest is on," Rob reminisced. "Our au pair, Anki, was very important to making our lives function. I delighted in her. She was completely fabulous in every respect.

"I spent so much of my early 'six-year-olds' redecorating her in all sorts of happy ways. And I was desperate for Sweden to win, right, because I wanted Anki to be happy."

He continued: "Anyway, this buffet of gorgeous blond men came out in golden shoes. And I was terrified because, of course, they came out first. And so they were never going to win. Who wins when you come out first?

"And I think it was just the best, most exciting thing I've ever seen with three of the most gorgeous looking humans. And I guess that was the quiet early epiphany moment of knowing that I was probably a little bit different.

"From there, it's become this resonant soundtrack of my life as I think back to when was it that you knew that you were slightly more jazz hands than Tottenham.

"And it was definitely when I listened to ‘Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley’ by Herrey’s."

Becoming an author

Following university, Rob became a barrister, but in 2014 he started to write a column for The Sun. Eventually he released his first novel in 2023 called The Trial, revealing to Ken how that came about.

"Actually it was some years ago and originally I wasn't going to do a whodunit," he explained. "It was going to be a series of real life stories about cases I've done.

"I went to sell that idea and they thought that might be a good idea, but what about you make them even more popular and split them up and put a whodunit around them?"

Rob then went on to reveal how each of the subplots in his books are "real cases" saying: "The subplots are all real cases that I did, in various ways, and around them are these fun whodunits.

"So you get a...blessed mixture of both worlds. But most importantly, the whole story is told through the lens of Adam Green, who's this young, working class barrister from Southgate who's Jewish and feels like a fish out of water."

The TV star then explained: "You can read them (books) in any order, this one particularly (The Defence), it really strikes at the heart of those challenging moments where you might have to stand up and stand between the state and an individual who you really can't stand."

Getting into law

Continuing on from that, when Ken asked about how he got into law - was it a "crusading sense of injustice that you wanted to put right," Rob explained: "That's a good question. A little bit, mainly I sort of went into it slightly blindly.

"I mean, I was...quite academic at university. I loved studying," he went on to admit that his 'sport' was "debating and we got good at that and the sort of natural progression was, well, 'I'll go and be a barrister'."

He continued: "I like talking to people. A bit of theatre, I'll become a jury advocate. It's now impossible to do that, you have to be so committed... Huge amount of debt. When I started at the bar, I mean, university was free at that point."

How he met good friend Benedict Cumberbatch

While many of us know Benedict Cumberbatch as the Stephen Hawking and Sherlock actor, Rob met him a long time before he became famous. Rob recounted the first time he met the student actor, saying: "I got to university and I thought I'd have another go (at acting) because I loved theatre, still do, and certainly great acting. And I went to read this part and I remember thinking it was quite good.

"Not because I thought it was good, I never think that, it's just the director, you could tell, you always tell you have an impact on somebody. And he's sort of nodding, I'm getting a bit excited.

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"And then the next bloke got up and read precisely the same speech, and the person who'd read that speech delivered it was Benedict Cumberbatch.

"I thought, 'nah, I mean, that's real art'. I could work my life off and never touch the face of that, it's the real deal."

Listen to the full interview with Rob Rinder

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