It was one of the most extraordinary TV mishaps of all time – when an African job seeker waiting in BBC reception was mistaken for a global tech expert and invited into the newsroom to be interviewed live on air.
And his evident bemusement as he bluffed his way through a two minute interview about Apple and a multimillion dollar lawsuit gave rise to a legion of memes and became one of the most viewed viral clips of all time.
Now, on the 20th anniversary of the incredible BBC blooper, the Daily Mail has tracked down both that hapless interviewee, Guy Goma, and the producer who mistakenly put him on air, to find out what really happened that strange night.
Mr Goma told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s crazy – even now people recognise me in the street. They say I am a legend. I’m still being asked for my autograph.
‘I never imagined that night that this one cock-up would go around the world like it did and I would become so famous.’
The TV segment was meant to be a two-way interview discussing an ongoing court case involving Apple at the High Court in May 2006.
Mr Goma, a soft-spoken Congolese-born job seeker, had just arrived at the BBC’s then HQ in White City, west London, and was waiting to be interviewed for a data role.
When Guy Goma, a softly spoken Congolese man, arrived at BBC headquarters in White City one afternoon in 2006, he was expecting to have an interview for a job as a data analyst
Instead, Mr Goma got a rather different interview as a flustered TV producer ushered him through the door and into a studio in front of millions of people. Baffled and wide-eyed, Mr Goma was introduced as a ‘tech expert’ there to opine on a High Court case involving Apple
Meanwhile upstairs at Television Centre, producer Elliott Gotkine was rushing around organising the live output of that night’s BBC News 24 channel.
The correct guest who had been arranged, tech expert Guy Kewney (who incidentally, unlike Mr Goma, was a white skinned man of slight build), had just arrived downstairs waiting in reception to be taken to the studio.
But when frantic Mr Gotkine burst into reception before he saw Mr Kewney sitting nearby he saw Mr Goma first, who looked up expectantly.
A legend was born.
Now both men have spoken exclusively to the Daily Mail ahead of the 20th anniversary of their bizarre first meeting, that night at the BBC.
Mr Gotkine, who has never spoken publicly about the episode before, recalled: ‘It was all a bit of a mad rush that day.
‘I had booked Guy Kewney and with a few minutes to go [before he was meant to be on air] there was still no word from him.
‘So I ran down to the reception and asked if they had someone called Guy Kewney there – and the receptionist pointed to Guy Goma.
‘I was a little taken aback and I asked if she was sure and she said yes.
‘I then went over to Guy – who I now know was the wrong Guy – and asked if he was Guy Kewney and he said yes, I thought maybe I had seen the wrong picture [of Mr Kewney], and I grabbed him and then rushed up to the studio.
‘We were due on air in less than five minutes, so I just grabbed him and we sprinted up the stairs.’
Mr Goma, then a business studies graduate from Brazzaville living in west London and seeking work as a data cleanser, picked up the story at this point, recalling: ‘I first thought something strange was happening when I was sat down in a chair and someone tried to put makeup on me.
‘I said to her, “I don’t need makeup, I’m here for a job interview,” but she didn’t seem to hear me.
‘Then we moved into the studio and the TV cameras were on me and I started to think, “Something isn’t right here – this isn’t how a job interview is supposed to go.” Because that’s what I was there for.’
Seconds later, Mr Goma found himself sitting opposite presenter Karen Bowerman, with beads of nervous sweat beginning to break out on his forehead as he shifted in his seat wondering what was going on.
The now famous footage shows Westminster College business graduate Mr Goma, dressed smartly in an open necked blue shirt and brown jacket, glancing nervously up at the lights and around at the cameras.
Breathing heavily, a terrified grimace crosses his face, before licking his lips and composing himself for the unsuspecting onslaught about to hit him.
Goma recalled: ‘I saw my image on a monitor, and I think that’s when I realised something was going horribly wrong.
‘But I didn’t want to make a scene or cause a fuss so I went along with it when the presenter started asking me questions.’
As Ms Bowerman wrongly introduced him as ‘Guy Kewney’, Mr Goma could be seen gulping.
He then opened his eyes wide in shock as she asked him for his ‘reaction to the court verdict’ and whether he was ‘surprised’.
The footage shows Mr Goma reply: ‘I’m very surprised to see this verdict come because I was not expecting that… When I came they told me something else, they said it was an interview so it was a big surprise…’
As the car crash exchange continued it began to dawn on Ms Bowerman and fellow TV executives that a huge cock-up was unfolding in front of their eyes – and they eventually managed to cut to another reporter who was standing outside the High Court.
Mr Goma’s live ordeal was over – but his fame was just beginning.
He recalls now: ‘Once it finished, I left and walked out of the building into the Underground station opposite.
‘I called the job agency and told them that something terrible had happened, I had been interviewed live on TV about something I didn’t know about.
‘I asked if I had got the job.
‘But they said, “No – go back, they are waiting for you.”
‘So I went back and had the interview, which was about Microsoft Excel which I do know about – but unfortunately I didn’t get the job.’
Mr Goma may well not have got that data job, but the clip of his interview was already going viral.
Furious BBC bosses launched an investigation into the cock-up and Mr Gotkine eventually left the BBC. He still works elsewhere within the TV industry.
Rather than come clean and explain who he really was and the real reason he was there that day, Mr Goma styled it out and bluffed his way through the next few minutes of TV
Mr Goma even spluttered at one point that he was ‘surprised by the decision’ because, he said, he ‘hadn’t been expecting it’, in the clip that went viral to millions of people all over the world
Mr Goma briefly became a celebrity, invited onto TV shows around the world, even hiring.
‘There was even talk of a prominent appearance on that December’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award show – but it never materialised.
A week after the incident, Goma was interviewed by the BBC and other TV networks telling them: ‘I never really wanted to be famous. I just wanted to be an accountant – I hope I get a job at the BBC.’
Almost immediately an online petition was started by viewers demanding that the BBC give him a job. Although this never happened, Goma was touched by the reaction: ‘It was so very kind of everybody, people were so kind and thoughtful.’
Mr Goma says: ‘I later got a call from the BBC asking me what programme I would like to work on, but I was in a hurry to catch a plane to Germany for a TV interview, so I asked them to call me back.
‘They never did but like I say to everyone it is the will of God, everything happens for a reason, I never really wanted to be famous but if the clip makes people laugh and makes them happy then I’m happy.’
Mr Gotkine recalls how minutes after Goma had been erroneously interviewed, he received a call to say the real Guy Kewney was in reception – and still waiting to be interviewed.
The producer said: ‘Once I realised the mistake had been made, I apologised profusely and we recorded an interview with Guy Kewney but it was never broadcast.’
Mr Kewney died in 2010, although the two did meet up after the infamous interview with the IT specialist posting about it on his blog, adding a photograph of the pair and describing Goma as his ‘twin brother’.
Goma – who fled to the UK after civil war ravaged Congo – now works with various charities in east London and also as a car park marshal at his beloved Queens Park Rangers football club.
He reflects now: ‘It was just a mix up, I was in the wrong place, I had no idea about the subject, so I just tried to give the right answer in the interview.
‘When she started talking, I thought “Oh dear Guy, you are in the wrong place” and you can see [in the footage] my body language expressed everything I was feeling.
‘But so many people have seen the video, and I still get messages from people about it.’
Mr Goma – who was not paid for his BBC interview – did initially contemplate legal action against the BBC for a share of the royalties his blooper earned.
But he later changed his mind, explaining: ‘I am a very spiritual person and I think God helped me get through it that day – and that everything happens for a reason.
‘If the reason was to make people happy and take some stress from them, then I’m happy for what happened.’
Mr Gotkine added: ‘Guy Goma really is the loveliest man you could ever meet
‘They talk about everyone having 15 minutes of fame but Guy has had twenty years of it and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.’
What Mr Goma was particularly keen to clear up in our interview was the suggestion, widely repeated at the time, that he was a taxi driver.
Chuckling he said: ‘That was all wrong, I was never a cabbie. People said I was but I wasn’t.
‘In fact I had recently graduated from college and was a student.
‘But back in Congo I had had a taxi firm so maybe that’s where the confusion came from.’
When asked why he just didn’t come clean before he was put on air, Mr Goma says today: ‘I just didn’t want to cause a scene and I didn’t want to create a fuss.
‘If I had just got up and walked off that would have been worse, I tried to answer the question as best I could but it wasn’t necessarily the right answer.’
Mr Gotkine added: ‘I think what got to people was just how extraordinarily lovely he came across as – Guy is such a lovely, lovely man and you can see that in just the few seconds he is on TV…
‘Although granted yes, it was a complete cock-up.
Afterwards Mr Goma became, albeit briefly, one of the most recognisable men on television and his newfound fame even earned him a place of the satirical show Have I Got News For You
‘The way he tried to bluff his way through it though was TV gold and it’s brought so many laughs to people and goodness knows we need a few laughs, especially at this time with what’s going on in the world.’
A new book called The Wrong Guy – The Inside Story Of TV’s Greatest Cock-Up – is to be published this spring for the anniversary, telling in fine detail the buildup and the aftermath of what became television history.
Written by Mr Gotkine, the hilarious account also details how the two men have kept in touch ever since and have even visited Mr Goma’s hometown of Brazzaville in the Democratic Republic of the Congo together.
