4.09PM, Mon Aug 16 2004....
ITV.com
Des Lynam has launched a blistering attack on Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell.
In a magazine interview, the TV veteran said he hates Cowell so much he wants to thump him.
"I'd like to go and punch that geek," Lynam ranted.
"I'd like to punch him now. This minute. I would punch him. That's his game... he wants, almost wants, to be punched.
"He's earning millions out of people wanting to punch him, but I'll be one of the first in the queue."
As the unflappable anchor of Match of the Day and then The Premiership, Lynam never lost his cool.
But in the interview he raged about Big Brother ("Hate it") and Tony Blair's former communications chief Alastair Campbell ("Who the hell was he? A sidekick of the Prime Minister.")
He even turned his fire on Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen.
"I think he's the ugliest b****** I've ever seen on television," he said - although on that one he may just have been joking.
