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Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Part of UK in Australia

23rd April 2012

Hamish and Andy

Andy Lee, High Commissioner Paul Madden and Hamish Blake at the Melbourne launch of the GREAT campaign
Andy Lee, High Commissioner Paul Madden and Hamish Blake at the Melbourne launch of the GREAT campaign

A quintessentially Australian experience:  an invitation to appear on the Hamish and Andy radio show.  Somehow this impressed my local staff more than when I go on the ABC to talk about foreign policy.

Hamish Blake has just won the Gold “Logie” as this year’s most popular TV personality in Australia. He and comedic partner Andy Lee are ubiquitous across TV, radio and the new media here with their irrepressible, irreverent sense of humour. I was invited on because they’re just about to go to the UK and broadcast their show from a pub in East London for a few weeks. They’re going to make a lot of new friends there.

I realised what I had let myself in for when the first question was “Do you have Low Commissioners as well as High Commissioners”. The effervescent pair are so quick witted it’s hard to keep up: the conversation veered at high speed from the Archbishop of Canterbury to British backpackers being rescued on Bondi Beach, and parties at Buckingham Palace. We finished by speculating whether “feeling a bit Hamish and Andy” could become the latest cockney rhyming slang.

You can hear the chat on Hamish and Andy’s podcast: I’m sandwiched between interviews with One Direction and Rihanna (18′ 48″), though sadly I was just sitting in my office on the end of the phone line. I think that’s because I’ve got a great face for radio.

I first met the pair at the lauch of the GREAT campaign in Melbourne – see what they had to say about Great Britain on the red carpet.

2 comments on “Hamish and Andy

  1. Very funny, I had heard about this but I have only just stumbled across the link – great podcast. You came across really well Paul.

  2. Hi Paul, thanks for reminding me about them. I really miss that show and their earlier one Radio Karate. I look forward to their comeback show on Today Network.

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About Paul Madden

Paul Madden has been the British Ambassador to Japan from January 2017. He was Additional Director for Asia Pacific at the FCO in 2015.He was British High Commissioner to Australia…

Paul Madden has been the British Ambassador to Japan from January 2017.

He was Additional Director for Asia Pacific at the FCO in 2015.He was British High Commissioner to Australia until February 2015. Prior to this he was British High Commissioner in Singapore from 2007-2011.

A career diplomat, he was previously Managing Director at UK Trade and Investment (2004-2006), responsible for co-ordinating and
implementing international trade development strategies to support
companies across a wide range of business sectors.

As Assistant Director of Information at the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (2003-2004) he was responsible for public diplomacy policy,
including managing the FCO funding of the BBC World Service, the British
Council and the Chevening Scholarships programme. He led the team
responsible for the award-winning UK pavilion at the Aichi Expo in Japan
2005.

He was Deputy High Commissioner in Singapore from 2000-2003 and has
also served in Washington (1996-2000) and Tokyo (1988-92). Between
1992-96 he worked on EU enlargement and Environmental issues at the FCO
in London.

Before joining FCO he worked at the Department of Trade and Industry
(1980-87) on a range of industrial sectors and trade policy, including
two years as a minister’s Private Secretary.

He has an MA in Economic Geography from Cambridge University, an MBA
from Durham University, studied Japanese at London University’s School
of Oriental and African Studies, and is a Fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society. His first book, Raffles: Lessons in Business
Leadership, was published in 2003.

Married to Sarah, with three children, he was born in 1959, in Devon.