The BBC’s Nick Robinson has apologised for using the unattributed “two rivers” metaphor by Vincent Mulchrone.
The expression was first used in a famous piece by the late Daily Mail columnist in 1965, shortly after Sir Winston Churchill passed away.
In a letter to the editor, he described the former prime minister’s three-day lying-in-state at Westminster Hall as “two rivers stream quietly through London tonight, and one is composed of people.” Robinson, 58, described the line to visit the late Queen as a “huge river of people” on yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme. This morning, London has not one, but two rivers, he said.
Later, the former political editor of the BBC apologised through Twitter, claiming that he “should have known” the metaphor’s history but “didn’t know.”
Thank you to those who made the observation that Vincent Mulchrone initially used the image of London having two rivers—the Thames and a flood of people waiting to pay their respects—in The Mail in 1965. I should have known that, but I’ll admit I didn’t.
I joined the line around 3.30 and I’m a little bit sleepy. God is aware of the emotions of people who stood in line all night.
Along with that, he tweeted a picture of Wednesday’s Daily Mail, which had the renowned 1965 piece by Mulchrone, who passed away in 1977.
After the broadcast, social media users quickly informed Robinson of the metaphor’s origin.
‘I cannot believe Nick Robinson on Radio 4 Today just used the famous ‘two rivers’ metaphor to describe the mourners in London without attributing it to the journalist who came up with it, Vincent Mulchrone of the Daily Mail RE Churchill’s funeral in 1965,’ tweeted Valentine Low, the royal correspondent for The Times.
Another person tweeted: “Unfortunate that Nick Robinson didn’t disclose that he was repeating someone else’s claim that “now London has two rivers” on Radio 4 Today. That quote is from 1965.
No surprise at all that Amol Rajan didn’t seem to know it was a quotation when the show came to a close.