Andy Coulson is a strategic advisor, former Downing Street director of comms, former editor of the News of the World — and onetime resident of HMP Belmarsh. Across the nineties, Andy worked his way up from a local newspaper to take on one of the biggest jobs in the UK media, before jumping over the fence to join the Cameron campaign as DC ascended to Number 10. Then, following the News of the World’s phone hacking scandal, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison — a part of his life that inspired his new podcast: Crisis, What Crisis, in which he talks to a wide array of people who have, as he puts it, been up and down the hill a few times. 

In a fascinating episode, Andy tells us how he dealt with what we might call David Cameron’s Toff Problem; discusses the entrepreneurial lessons he learned in prison; and describes the dangerous symptoms of a condition he calls ‘Editoritis’. Enjoy.