This conversation has contemporary resonances. LIke others that came after him this former vice chairman of the Conservative Party and would be Mayor of London had supreme confidence in his ability to tell lies and then lie his way out of the consequences of the earlier untruths. Jeffery Archer was supremely confident he would always 'get away with it'. The edifice of untruths became unsustainable and eventually collapsed. We see this happening again.

The reason for this interview was the publication of a new collection of short stories. The coverage in the tabloids at the time was much more about his relationship with a prostitute and how he persuaded a friend to give her money to go away.

With hindsight his lies were going to send him to prison and I should maybe have asked him about being banished from the Tory party and his payments to sex worker Monica Coghlan. That might have made a more riveting conversation. 

This fits in with all the revelations in the Channel 5 documentary.

It was a long time ago ..... I was young!!!