MOST of the television obits for David Trimble showed his famous meltdown on Hearts and Minds with Noel Thompson back in 2002, when he was under pressure from unionists because of the failure of the IRA to decommission its weapons.
He once blamed his naturally florid complexion for making him look angry when he wasn't. But that day there was no doubt that he was indeed furious.
The interview was arranged to be recorded in the morning as he was busy for the rest of the day. He arrived a half-an-hour early, without a press officer, while the studio was still being set up.
He came in to make-up on his phone, shouting at some poor schmuck on the other end, while his police protection officer rolled his eyes behind him.
"You're a bit early, but we'll be ready very soon," I said. "Would you like a coffee?"
"I will not be mollified," he barked back at me and I scuttled into the studio, pleading with everyone to hurry up. It went downhill from there and, in local parlance, he completely 'lost the bap' when Noel probed him about decommissioning.
For a minute, I thought he was going to do a John Nott, the defence secretary during the Falklands war who walked off in a television interview during a heated interview with Robin Day – unfortunately forgetting he was still attached to a microphone.
But Trimble simply gripped the edge of the table with both hands and stayed to complete the interview in a calmer, if still narked, tone.
Afterwards he was quite cheery and laughingly told me he'd been on the verge of punching Noel on the nose. But he forgot about the incident, even though it was replayed many times, and agreed to subsequent interviews with the programme.
There was of course the earlier footage of him parading down Garvaghy Road hand in hand with his arch-rival, Ian Paisley. There's little doubt that this hardline display earned him the party leadership.
But later he saw that negotiation for a different Northern Ireland was necessary and then came the other TV footage. This time he was being barracked and jostled by an angry, baying mob outside the count centre in Banbridge, as he tried to usher his frightened wife to safety into their car.
There is a moment when he turns as someone touches him on the head and he instinctively ducks before realising it was a supportive gesture from one lone friendly face. He responds with a thumbs up before being manhandled into the car by his police bodyguards.
It was a graphic example of the kind of threats he had been facing from unionists who considered him to be a traitor. His family also bore the brunt of such abuse.
It's easy to forget the courage it took for Trimble to back the Good Friday Agreement. He just scraped a majority in his own community with 51 per cent of unionists voting for it in the referendum, and that figure didn't increase.
The IRA decided he was a busted flush and stalled decommissioning until the DUP were the boys in the big picture. So he paid the ultimate political price and his party, like the SDLP, has never recovered.
It's ironic that those siren voices in the DUP who opposed the Agreement are now claiming it's under threat because of the NI Protocol.
Whatever you think of David Trimble – socially awkward, frequently charmless – he was never a hypocrite.
***
MEANWHILE, back in the present political world where politicians are now so manufactured that, at the opening of the BBC's Tory leadership debate, it looked as though there were two cardboard cut-outs facing Sophie Raworth – until Sunak blinked.
Both paid tributes to the former UUP leader, whose death was announced just shortly before the programme started. And that was the only reference to Northern Ireland, because they don't actually care.
