Crisis What Crisis with Andy Coulson

On June 6th 2004, Frank Gardner was in Riyadh filming what was meant to be a routine piece of background footage when an Al-Qaeda cell opened fire. His cameraman, Simon Cumbers, was killed. Frank was shot six times and left for dead. One surgeon later told him he'd arrived at hospital the colour of a lab coat, bleeding from every wound faster than they could pour the plasma in. It was, in the truest sense, the day Frank should have died.
That day split his life in two. Before it, he was a restless Arabist who'd hitchhiked across the Middle East with nothing in his pocket, spent a decade in banking, turned down MI6, and talked his way into the BBC in his mid-30s to become its first ever security correspondent. After it, he was partially paralysed and in daily pain – yet back at work within ten months, and has spent the twenty years since reporting from the very places that nearly killed him. He describes crossing an invisible bridge to a new version of himself, this conversation is about what that crossing actually cost.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FOUR LESSONS FROM FRANK
Don't waste your energy mourning what you can no longer change. Pour it into what you still can.
When crisis hits, there's a fork in the road. One path is self-pity – and it's entirely justifiable. The other is deciding to make the most of what you've got left. Choosing the second is a daily struggle.
Look outwards, not inwards. Fill your life with the things that make you feel useful and alive. Fixating on your own troubles is a trap – curiosity about the world around you is the way out.
Volunteer for the work no one else wants – the weekends, the bank holidays, the night shifts. It's how you make yourself indispensable, and how you get your shot when it finally comes.

CHAPTERS
05:18 – The daily indignities most people never see
08:57 – Why he refuses to let it define him
11:33 – Where his grit really came from: two extraordinary parents
14:19 – The bold early decisions that shaped a life
20:38 – Turning down MI6 – and the self-awareness to know why
27:45 – How to break into a career when there's no job at the end of it
30:27 – The attack: what actually happened that day
31:02 – Seven months in hospital, and living with the what-ifs
39:45 – The one thing he's still bitter about
42:15 – Losing Simon, and finding a way through the grief
44:37 – "You'll never walk again" – the second hammer blow
48:05 – The letter from the BBC that gave him something to aim for
50:42 – Going back to Saudi Arabia to face it down
53:52 – Why he doesn't spend his life grieving
BUY FRANK'S BOOK
Ballistic – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178763549X?tag=prhmarketing2552-21
FOLLOW FRANK GARDNER
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X – https://x.com/FrankRGardner
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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Shock is a fundamental part of almost any crisis. It's a state of complete operating system override which, when left unacknowledged, can turn into something far more damaging.
In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson revisits five past guests who each experienced shock in very different ways, and found very different routes through it.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FULL EPISODES:
Johnny Mercer: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000482235919
Rupert Soames: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000700198554
Dr Richard Shepherd: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000533310865
Jill Halfpenny: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000661591052
Kate Bowler: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000762523544
FOLLOW THE GUESTS:
Johnny Mercer: https://www.instagram.com/johnnymercermp/?hl=en
Dr Richard Shepherd: https://www.instagram.com/drrichardshepherd/?hl=en
Jill Halfpenny: https://www.instagram.com/jillhalfpenny/?hl=en
Kate Bowler: https://www.instagram.com/katecbowler/?hl=en

Jeremy King is the legendary restaurateur behind Le Caprice, The Ivy, The Wolseley and Simpson's on the Strand. His is a story of extraordinary gambles, of rooms that became London institutions, and of losing the company that carried his own name — and choosing to build all over again in his 70s.
In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Jeremy to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.
If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
CHAPTERS:
00:59 A Person – Himself. The only person he can absolutely trust in a crisis.
02:43 A Habit – Up at 5am, every day, it's the ritual that stabilises him before the world wakes up
03:44 A Comfort – His children, and the different perspective they bring
04:26 A Piece of Advice – Why get inordinately upset about something you'll forget about in future?
BUY JEREMY'S BOOK
Without Reservation: Lessons from a Life in Restaurants – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Reservation-Lessons-Life-Restaurants/dp/0008599025
FOLLOW JEREMY KING
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jeremyrbking/?hl=en
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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

In April 2022, after a bruising auction battle with his own investors, Jeremy King lost the company that carried his name. He walked back into the Wolseley – the restaurant he had built into the highest grossing restaurant in Britain – to find his staff in tears and the new owners already arriving. His phone and laptop were taken from him, he felt, as he puts it, like a criminal – stripped of all his possessions and then cast out onto the street.
But that was just the latest chapter in a career defined again and again by gambles, diligence, loss, and extraordinary success. Jeremy once handed the biggest decisions of his life to the roll of a dice. He built and sold an empire, built another, and now, at 72, is rebuilding for a third time – with Simpson's in the Strand, London’s most talked about restaurant of the moment and a venue he first tried to buy 26 years ago.
Across the last forty-five years Jeremy has revived or built from scratch some of London’s most loved restaurants: Le Caprice, The Ivy, J Sheekey, The Wolseley and The Delaunay. His patrons have ranged from royalty to the greatest artists of the age, yet his gift has always been to make anyone who walks through his doors feel like they are the most important person in the room.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
FOUR LESSONS FROM JEREMY
Look for the good before the crisis has even hit. Whatever's going wrong, there's almost always something to salvage.
Let them take your money. Never let them take your soul. You'll always find another way to make money.
Don't act fast just to feel in control. People panic and make the wrong moves because they think a crisis demands speed. Often the bravest, smartest thing you can do is wait and see.
Do the job better than it's ever been done – even sweeping a floor. Pride is yours to keep. That standard, once set, never leaves you.

CHAPTERS
04:54 – Why the best operators watch before they speak
08:04 – How an early knock to your confidence can shape a whole career
25:00 – Where a true standard of excellence actually comes from
30:08 – What it really feels like to lose the company with your name on it
39:26 – Why selling too early can be the smartest deal you ever do
45:00 – Holding your nerve on the worst day of your business life
49:16 – Protecting your reputation when the story's out of your hands
51:44 – What five years with Lucian Freud taught him about risk and danger
57:18 – Why integrity is simply never trying to get away with anything
58:32 – The art of defusing a crisis before it becomes one
01:03:20 – Keeping perspective: why every crisis is relative
01:07:09 – Starting over at 72
BUY JEREMY'S BOOK
Without Reservation: Lessons from a Life in Restaurants https://www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Reservation-Lessons-Life-Restaurants/dp/0008599025
FOLLOW JEREMY KING
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jeremyrbking/?hl=en
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Over 20 years in frontline politics, Sir Jeremy Hunt held three of the great offices of state – Health Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He survived some of the most bruising political battles of his generation, and grieved, throughout, the loss of his father, his mother, and his brother.
In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Jeremy to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation he turns to on his darker days – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.
POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:
I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.
This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.
CHAPTERS:
01:02 A Person — the one who'll still be there when the job, the title, and the headlines are long gone
01:21 A Habit — the cross-country team he was forced into at school, and why he still hasn't stopped
01:55 A Comfort — six and a half weeks of Lent torture, and why Easter makes it worth it
02:15 A Piece of Advice — why criticism only hurts when it comes from someone you know
BUY JEREMY'S BOOK:
Can We Be Rich Again? The Surprising Potential of Britain's Economy – https://shorturl.at/4Kv0D
FOLLOW JEREMY:
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/jeremyhuntmp/
TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyrshuntmp
X — https://x.com/Jeremy_Hunt
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhuntuk/
FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?
Instagram — www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast
TikTok — www.tiktok.com/@crisispod
This was a Crisis What Crisis Production — Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)