Stalwart BBC presenter Andrew Marr has signed off from his 21-year career onscreen by quoting Will Ferrell’s Anchorman character Ron Burgundy.
Marr presented his final Sunday morning show yesterday (December 19). “I have been so lucky and so privileged to share so many Sunday mornings with you,” he said as the show drew to a close.
He then added: “I have been wondering how to close this final show, but I can’t do better than quoting my great mentor: ‘You stay classy, San Diego.’”
"I have been so lucky and so privileged to share so many Sunday mornings with you"
Andrew Marr signs of his final show: "You stay classy San Diego" #Marr https://t.co/gIdFHrvktI pic.twitter.com/mgejQQDjiz
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 19, 2021
Marr’s final show featured a montage of his most prolific interviews, which included speaking with Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Greta Thunberg, as well as six Prime Ministers. The presenter also engaged in a monumental conversation with Jay-Z in 2009, in which the rapper spoke about his career and accolades.
“I just passed Elvis with my 11th Number One album. We were tied on ten,” he explained. “I think The Rolling Stones have nine but, of course, The Beatles have got 19, so that’s my next goal,” he said at the time.
He added: “Fame is a very difficult thing to manage. Every day people are telling you you’re great, you’re fantastic and every time they tell you your head gets bigger and you’re floating away. You need your friends to pull your legs back down and keep you grounded.”
Elsewhere, Anchorman director Adam McKay has voiced regret about parting ways with his longstanding collaborator Ferrell.
“It ended not well,” McKay said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. The fallout came during the development of a series that the director was making for HBO about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. Ferrell, a die hard fan of the team, had his heart set on playing its owner Jerry Buss.
“Ferrell just doesn’t look like Jerry Buss, and he’s not that vibe of a Jerry Buss,” said McKay. “And there were some people involved who were like, ‘We love Ferrell, he’s a genius, but we can’t see him doing it.’ It was a bit of a hard discussion.”