How does this happen? Well, the cab driver appeared at the BBC front desk and someone assumed he was the computer expert who was scheduled to appear on a news program. Without asking any questions, he was whisked onto the set and interviewed on live television. He made a valiant effort at trying to answer the anchor's questions! She only asked him three questions about downloading music before suddenly tossing to a reporter in the field. I think someone told her in her ear that she had the wrong guy on set.
It's especially funny when the cab driver is introduced as the editor of some tech magazine -- the look on his face is priceless. Apparently, the real tech editor watched the whole thing from the BBC reception area.
There's another twist to the whole story. Turns out he isn't a cabbie at all:
And he wasn't there to pick up a fare, because he's not a cabbie. He's a Business Studies graduate, from the Congo, and he was there in reception because he was applying for a high level IT job with the BBC.Check out the video at YouTube.com.
Apparently the unflappable Mr Goma assumed the whole thing was some kind of initiation prank. His own speciality is data cleansing, and (my source inside the Beeb tells me) was "a little upset that nobody asked him about his data cleansing expertise."
And we all thought situation comedy shows were unrealistic.
