The late Miles Kington was one of those people who could fashion amusement seemingly without batting an eyelid. Here he is in the Times explaining why he could never make it as a reporter:

I got caught up in the June 1980 military coup in Bolivia. There had been TV crews waiting in La Paz for a coup for months but they had all got bored and had departed.

A week later, when the coup came, the only TV crew in town was ours, and we were there to film railway engines.

We were quite lucky to get the first flight out three days later.

When we landed at Lima airport, the first eyewitnesses to reach the outside world, I was approached by an eager Peruvian who wanted to know every last detail of what I’d seen, so obligingly I told him the full story.

As he rushed away I was approached by our cameraman, Nick Lera, who had already sent his news film of the coup back to London.

“You’ll never make a reporter, Kington,” he said. “That man you were talking to is the Reuters man in Lima. He’s got your story now.”

The pity of it…