THE WRONG GUY

~ Iain Kelly

The man arrived in reception and shouted his name. ‘Guy?’

He stood up and walked towards him, ‘Hello.’

‘This way, we haven’t got much time.’ Odd, he thought, his interview for a BBC accountant job wasn’t for another twenty minutes.

They hurried along corridors. ‘It’ll be Karen interviewing you. Just give her the answers and keep them short.’

They walked into a studio. ‘Take a seat right there.’ Guy sat down. A make-up woman dusted his face. Strange.

‘Hi, I’m Karen,’ said the woman sitting across from him, ‘All set? Don’t be nervous. Just look at me.’

A person counted down ‘On-air in 3-2-1…’

Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Written for Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (more details HERE). The idea is to write a short story of 100 words based on the photo prompt (above).

To read stories of 100 words based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

This week’s prompt was a little close to home for my own work, but it did bring to mind one of my favourite, funniest TV studio moments. In 2006, Guy Goma arrived at the BBC for a job interview as an accountant. A mix-up meant he ended up on-air, mistakenly presumed to be Guy Kewney, a technology expert, and was interviewed about a legal case involving Apple. Rather than admit he was the wrong guy, he went along with the interview and answered as best he could. The result is TV gold!

Also linking to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge for today: Pundit.

AMAZON UK     AMAZON.COM      SMASHWORDS      KOBO     BARNES & NOBLE

Published by Iain Kelly

39 year old writer, avid film viewer and book reader, employed in the media industry as a television editor.

78 thoughts on “THE WRONG GUY”

    1. He went for his proper interview after the mix up… and didn’t get the job! He did however get a bit of fame and plenty of TV guest appearances afterwards!

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  15. I remember this one – as you say, it was gold. I think we expect so much of our news reporting, it’s nice to see something a little human sometimes. Although I recently suffered an enforced switch to Channel 4 and it shows just how polished the BBC are.

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    1. Ha, to be fair channel 4 do some pretty good news too. I agree, it’s always nice to see things go a little awry, especially if it’s in a harmless way. It makes everyone seem a bit more human.

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  16. Good for him for not shying away from the questions. He did well under pressure. It’s a pity he didn’t get the job. I wonder what the real “Guy” thought about this case of mistaken identity. Thanks for sharing, Iain.

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  29. Oh man, this is sometimes how I feel writing for clients about things I know they understand better than me. Except, it puts the imposter in imposter syndrome. I bet the whole time he was waiting for the part where someone is like haha, only kidding!!! We know you don’t know what you are talking about. We have all been there but never quite so … dramatically? That poor Guy! Both of them.

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  30. I had never heard about this “guy.” So, this was great for me. It made me smile. He pulled it off wonderfully. Too bad he didn’t get the actual job! Thank you for sharing this with us.

    Liked by 1 person

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