Lukáš Dolanský: I loved London – but I'm happy I don't have to live there
Lukáš Dolanský is a well-known journalist who until this year served as Czech Television’s correspondent in the United Kingdom. Dolanský underwent something of a baptism of fire in the posting, arriving just days before the news broke of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. That’s among many stories Dolanský recounts, and insights he shares, in a new book, The Colours of My London.
You started in print media, written media, before you moved to Czech Television, where you were successful, presenting a late-night news discussion show. But then, about eight or nine years ago, when you were around 40, you decided you wanted to be a foreign correspondent. What led you to want to be a foreign correspondent?
“The answer is quite simple. In those words you used, I worked as a print journalist, or in the print media, and I was actually doing politics for 15 years.
“I spent 13 years in the Parliament. I was accredited as a parliamentary journalist. And I did quite enjoy it, I have to say.
“But after a while I thought that I could make a small step beyond.
“But I wasn’t a correspondent before, and what I thought, and I think my thoughts were right [laughs], was that Brussels, and Brussels politics, are very much connected to domestic affairs.
“That was my presentation, so to speak, or my idea that I brought to my bosses. I said, A domestic correspondent should go to Brussels and work those domestic affairs, just in Brussels.
“They said, That’s quite an interesting idea – maybe we can work on it.
“I waited five years [laughs], but afterwards it did happen.
“And I started something, I think, because other guys [at Czech Television], like [current Brussels reporter] Petr Obrovský and others, weren’t foreign correspondents before either.
“I think it was very, very useful to know how politics work. Not to be foreign correspondent, but to be a political correspondent in domestic affairs and work in Brussels.
“I knew all those politicians and I could talk to them quite easily. So I think it was a good idea.
“I did enjoy it, apart from Brussels, I have to say [laughs].”
Tell me about the posting – was it enjoyable to any degree?
“I loved the work, because it was something that I was used to and wanted to do.
“It was very interesting, even though it was very complicated, as Brussels is.
“I didn’t like the city. I did not enjoy Brussels. But as people say, there’s one great thing about Brussels: You can leave the city in just a few minutes and in a couple of hours you are in Amsterdam or Paris, anywhere.
“So it’s a great point to be at, but to be quite honest I did not really like the city.”
In 2022 you moved to London as correspondent in the UK. Was London a place that you actively wanted to go to?
“I was so surprised, because as I said I didn’t work as a foreign correspondent before. So after five years in Brussels I thought that would be it, that we would be returning.
“But my bosses asked me, What about London? And I said that’s part of my heart, because I studied in London before – I can’t say no.
“I had culture shock despite thinking that I knew London.”
Lukáš Dolanský
“We talked about it at home and we decided to try it. That was like my first real foreign post.
“It was interesting I did really enjoy the city and the culture and everything, even though I did have culture shock despite thinking that I knew the city and I knew the country.
“But I did study there 20 years ago and the UK has changed quite a lot. So that was quite surprising.”
What was so different?
“From my perspective, the UK is not doing really well at the moment.
“There isn’t a really good atmosphere, prices are high and energy prices are high. And you can really feel it – there isn’t a positive spirit among the people.
“It’s not only because of Brexit – though it is also because of Brexit – and of course energy prices are high because of the situation in Ukraine. Covid hit the UK very hard.
“So these small things put together a perspective which I was quite surprised by.
“When we were leaving so many regular people, like parents of my kids’ friends, who said, You are leaving – we understand.
“So that was a bit surprising, even though I have to say that the UK is a strong and really big economy and they can handle it quite well.”
How did Brexit complicate your life? You arrived a couple of years after it came into effect.
“Well [laughs]! Of course the first thing was I needed a visa and I couldn’t get it.
“I applied, I paid lots of money for it, which [laughs] is part of trying to get the visa now, and I was waiting four months or something like that.
“It was incredible. It was meant to be done in three weeks, but we really waited so, so long. I arrived without a visa and I got it after a couple of weeks.
“So that was the first thing. And another thing the visa meant was that our stay would be terminated – after three years we had to leave, basically.
“I could apply for an extension but we decided not to and we decided to return.
“So these were things that really changed our existence in the UK.”
On the work front, soon after you arrived one of the biggest news stories in the UK in decades happened – the death of the queen.
“Oh my God! That was something. It was 11 days after I arrived. We still had all our things in boxes piled in the living room.
“I had one jacket and one shirt and one tie which I was using before because, as you remember, the government had just fallen and there were some tricky things with Boris Johnson and stuff.
“So I said, OK, now it’s done, now I can concentrate on my family and everything I need to concentrate on.
“And suddenly my editor called me and said, There’s some bad news, I think you should get in front of Buckingham Palace and be ready.
“So we went there. It was a really strange moment I have to say, because it had been announced that the queen was just getting worse so we thought, OK, now we have a couple of days, but we did not, we had just a couple of minutes, so to speak.”
And you got the news during the main news on Czech Television?
“Yes, it did. It was 7 o’clock here in the Czech Republic, 6 o’clock in the UK, and my first live presentation was I think at about 7:11.
“The question was quite simple, How is she doing? And I said that Buckingham Palace had posted during the day the news that she is not doing well, but she’s stabilised.
“And I was standing there still, waiting in front of Buckingham Palace, and there were huge crews everywhere, hundreds, thousands of journalists prepared for the moment. Everyone knew it was going to happen.
“Then I realised after a few minutes that the flag had just been taken down. All the phones started beeping and everyone was getting the news that she had passed away.
“So during the news they said they had to go back to the UK and I just said the news.”
How did you go doing all the organisational things? I guess you had to secure places to shoot from, do a lot of interviewing people and so on and do a lot of live reports on Czech Television. How did you manage all that logistically?
“I was quite used to it from Brussels.
“Now the technology is quite easy, so you can even do a live transmission with a telephone.
“During Covid my cameraperson was sick for a week so I had to do all the lives and everything just from my phone, and to be quite honest I think people didn’t really see the difference.
“In the UK no-one really wants to Czech TV apart from galleries and places.”
Lukáš Dolanský
“Nothing against my cameraperson [laughs], but you know. Of course it was better with him, I have to say.
“So these things are now very quick, and also demanding – because here in Prague everyone knows that you can do lives in a couple of minutes; they just call you and say, Be live in 30 minutes.
“A couple of years ago you’d have to pay for the satellite, you had to order everything, it took ages and it was so expensive.
“But to your question, being there you are quite alone. You’re like a lonely soldier doing everything.
“You have to file the stories, you have to talk to people, you have to persuade people to talk to you, which is the worst thing ever in the UK, because [laughs] no-one really wants to Czech Television apart from galleries and places, which think it might attract some Czech viewers or Czech tourists.
“So to get for example to any politicians or anything is very tricky and very hard.
“And then you have to just do the work. They just tell you here in Prague that you have lives at 10 and 2 and then you do a story for the main evening news – and you just do it.”
There was one amusing detail to me in the book which is that there were some royal experts walking around offering to give interviews to TV journalists for money – and carrying their books as proof they were experts.
“There really were. There was one guy and he really did that. He was like, I’m an expert.
“And I saw him on different stations afterwards. He had apparently written some book and he was trying to attract TV crews.
“As I also wrote in the book – and this is quite surprising to me – it’s apparently a thing in the British media area that you pay for interviews.”
And the famous John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons, famous for saying “order”, was also charging?
“Well, he wanted to charge. We couldn’t pay so we didn’t get the interview.
“I have to say that at the time we requested the interview he was not the head of Parliament, he was not an active politician, he was in retirement, so OK, maybe that’s part of his income.
“But yes, when he realised it would be a TV interview he, or his people, said he wanted money for his time.”
Typically what were the British news stories that your editors here were interested in?
“Every foreign correspondent is really into the things that are happening there, so I would think that something was a big story and I would call my editors and they would say that it wasn’t really an issue for the Czech audience.
“But of course politics, if it was big, say about Brexit.
“That’s kind of funny, because I met a guy from a Dutch newspaper who said, I’m here quite new – and when I arrived my editors told me, Do everything about Brexit, we don’t care about anything else, just do stories about how Brexit has badly affected the UK.
“So I didn’t have to do that, but Brexit was always something which my editors were interested in. Politics also.
“But there were also some small things that you couldn’t see in other outlets, like expensive water, pollution in the Thames, which was a story I did a couple of times.
“I did like to do so-called soft stories. I did loads of culture stories, because I thought that was interesting, nice to film and you could experience something.
“What you basically do is you send your story ideas to the editors and they say, We don’t want this or this, but do that and do that.
“It’s not like the decision would be only theirs, but mainly they decide what to broadcast.”
Over the years a few times I’ve been to London on reporting assignments for Radio Prague International and I always found the most enjoyable part was getting to speak to older Czech people, who maybe went in 1948 or 1968 and had great stories. I presume you also met some great older Czechs in the UK?
“I did. I recollect really interesting filming with, for example, some of the ‘Winton’s children’ [saved on 1939 kindertransports from Prague organised by UK diplomat Nicholas Winton].
“We actually did a story with, I think, seven of the last remaining ones. They were really interesting, fluent in Czech and full of memories.
“And I was quite fortunate that I was able to speak to the last Czech soldier who had fought in the second world war.
“He was a 104-year-old gentleman who hadn’t spoken Czech for, I don’t know, 60 years, but fluent. The interview was in Czech – he wanted to speak in Czech – and he was speaking about his experiences.
“It was interesting – he had been kind of forgotten because he had left the UK for the previous 20 years [to live in Spain] and army officials here in the Czech Republic basically forgot about him.
“When he returned [to the UK] someone found out he was still living there. A couple of months before he died we had the chance to interview him and it was really interesting.”
His name was Ervín something?
“Hoida, Ervín Hoida.”
And he was in Liverpool?
“Yes, he lived in Liverpool.”
Did you get to travel much outside London to report?
“We did, but as you know travelling outside London is not really an easy task [laughs].”
And crazy expensive, right? The train fares are insane.
“Not only expensive. Just to get outside London takes two hours, so to get somewhere and back was so complicated.
“But we did of course travel. We went to Scotland and I was doing reporting from Northern Ireland, because of Brexit for example, which was quite a big story.”
I guess you didn’t have much time to go to the pub when you were in London. You had three kids and were super busy. But when you did go to the pub, what did you drink?
“I did drink beer, and I did drink ale, I have to say.
“But when my father-in-law came to London and he asked for a beer I said, What kind of beer do you want?
“He said, Whatever they drink here. I said, Are you sure? And he said, Of course.
“So I brought him a nice pint of ale without foam and he said, What’s that?
“I said, Well, that’s what you asked for. So he drank it and he said, Why does it taste like soap? And I said, Well, that’s how it is.
“But I did quite get used to some nice ales, though I still did discover a few pubs with Czech pilsner and when I was really down or something I would sneak in and say, Can I have one pilsner please? [laughs]”
After three years of living and working there, how much did you like London?
“I loved it. I did love the city. I was very fortunate and very happy that I could have this experience, not only to live there but also to work there and to be the eyes for my audience, or for the Czechs.
“And I don’t this to sound harsh or anything, but I’m happy I don’t have to live there.
“Because the first thing I realised was that life here is so much easier, nicer – and I’m not only talking about the weather or the beer [laughs].
“I brought my father-in-law a nice pint of ale without foam and he said, What’s that?”
Lukáš Dolanský
“We just realised that as a family. You asked me how London had changed – for example, it’s dangerous.
“I have three kids, as you mentioned, and I never let travel around, apart from just walking to school.
“I wasn’t able to let my daughter go in the evening into the city. She didn’t want to go. We have no problems with that here in Prague. We are fortunate here.”
Your kids went to state schools?
“Yes, they did. They were kind of surprised because in Brussels they attended a semi-private English school, because we didn’t think we would continue with our travels so we didn’t put them in a French-speaking school but in an English-speaking school, so they could learn English.
“So afterwards when they went to the UK they knew English quite well.
“They went to a regular English school and it was a bit of shock, I would say. It was different [laughs].
“For example a couple of weeks after we arrived my daughter wanted to switch schools because some kids were quite rude to her. So she changed schools.
“Even though they were doing quite well, and the schools were nice, it was quite different.
“I have three kids and I never let travel around, apart from just walking to school.”
Lukáš Dolanský
“And we realised when we returned that they had to study really hard to get on the level of education they need to continue their education here in the Czech schools.”
Generally how has the adjustment been for them since they came back after, what, eight years away?
“Well, hard. The best example is my son who is 11, Matěj. He left when he was three so he started to learn not even writing but language properly abroad, and English is now his first language. As it is for the other kids.
“So they actually had to learn a foreign language called Czech, even though we spoke Czech at home and they understand Czech quite well.
“We just realised it’s hard to continue education in the Czech language when it’s a second language for them. That was the biggest obstacle for them and still is.
“They’re fighting but my son is asking every day, What does this word mean, what does that word mean?
“I’m happy I don’t have to live there. Life here is so much easier, nicer.”
Lukáš Dolanský
“And I hadn’t realised how within the schools here some of the words they use are not spoken any more. They have a maths oral examination and there are words which aren’t used in regular language.
“So it’s quite tough I have to say. They have to fight. They fought for eight years and they have to fight now [laughs].”
But also they’ll have great English their whole lives, right? That’s a plus.
“Yes, but they need Czech as well, right [laughs]? They have to learn this language.”
I can easily imagine your book being in many people’s Christmas gifts. Ježíšek will be delivering it around the country. I think that Czechs have a very positive attitude to the UK. Is that what you’ve found?
“They do, yes. It’s quite interesting how we are focused on the UK.
“I was talking to somebody, actually the ambassador, here in Prague and he asked me why do we report so much about UK life, and not for example about France or Germany.
“And I think it’s English. Because when someone speaks a language at those news services, they speak English. Not too many people speak German or French, which is a pity.
“So it’s very easy to sit and translate the news from the BBC. That’s the first thing.
“The second thing is I think there’s some kind of fascination with the UK.
“And you would understand what I say when I say that the Brits are very good at promoting their culture and British life, right? From David Beckham’s left foot to James Bond to Paddington. Harry Potter.
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“I’ve spoken to so many Czechs who say, Oh London, we love London.
“And I say, I love London as well, London is a great place to visit or to be for a couple of weeks, but it’s not really a cool place to live your whole live.
“So why is it? I think it’s also history. Karel Čapek was fascinated by the UK, and the UK was something like a unique place.
“And it’s still a bit different from Europe.”
Don’t you say in the book that Čapek didn’t like it there?
“That’s what I found out, actually [laughs] – he was kind of scared.
“He didn’t like London. He was a bit happy when he visited Scotland, but in London he was scared.
“Because of all the traffic, all the noise, so many people. He was saying there were horrible huge buses with so many people.
“And the truth is, this for me was also the first thing which I realised, and I realised I’d forgotten it – how many people there are there.
“You just can’t walk the street without bumping into another person all the time. There are so many people there.”
Would you say there are any common misconceptions that Czechs have about the UK? Things they don’t understand, or that they don’t know?
“Maybe the question should be the other way around, because I think the Brits have quite a small understanding of the Czech Republic.
“You asked about the schools, and I would say most of the kids – for example, my daughter’s schoolmates – didn’t know where the Czech Republic is. She was so surprised.
“Back to your question, I think the Czechs a little bit idolise the UK, because they say, as I was saying, David Beckham’s left foot and the history and the music…”
The royal family.
“The royal family, of course. And all the glamour.
“When you visit London there is everything, all the museums, the galleries.
“But then that was my task, and what I tried to present a little bit, there is life underneath that kind of tourist view of the UK.
“And that’s the situation, which at the moment is not really easy for the Brits to be in.”
