What next for John Bercow – Speaker for 10 years, and a household name thanks to Brexit? One thing he knows is that it won’t be Strictly…

When John Bercow bowed out as Speaker of the House of Commons last month – in the chamber, he listened uncomplainingly for just under three hours to MPs lavishly buttering him with praise – the attention of one newspaper diarist was drawn by rumours of the sight of a somewhat unlikely observer in the gallery. Who was this attentive fellow, and what was it that he was scribbling so assiduously in his notebook? Later, a name was supplied. Apparently, it was none other than the actor Tom Hollander, who may or may not be preparing to play the former Speaker on screen.

If Bercow the biopic is shortly to become a reality, Hollander will have his work cut out. It’s not only that he’ll have to get the voice right (at his best – or worst, depending on your point of view – Bercow sounds like Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in the 1935 movie Mutiny on the Bounty). Actually, that’s the easy part (“Order, orr-duu-rrr!”). It’s the personality that’s trickier to catch. Crikey, but he’s a strange mix. Yes, as even he admits, he is pompous, irascible, long-winded, pig-headed and, at times, utterly irritating. But he’s also quick, warm, quite funny and, most surprisingly of all for a politician, capable of great, almost dazzling, honesty. In summary, all of his emotions are perilously close to the surface and you must be prepared for spillages, even as you struggle to follow his endlessly unspooling paragraphs. In 25 years, I’ve never interviewed someone more difficult to interrupt, or more prone to tears.