One of the strangest twists in the ongoing saga of News of the World‘s phone hacking saga was the revelation a few months ago that actor Hugh Grant had not only been a victim, he’d bugged the hackers back. In case you don’t recall, Grant met Paul McMullen, a former NoW editor who’d spoken about the phone hacking before in the press, in a pub and secretly recorded the conversation for a piece he wrote in the New Statesman. Today, Grant got in quite a debate with McMullen on BBC News Channel that was as entertaining as any of his movies.

First Grant went over the story as well as some of his most disturbing findings:

“[McMullen told me] how high, extensive, industrial-scale phone-hacking went on at News of the World, particularly under Andy Coulson, how it wasn’t just the News of the World, it was all the tabloids, how money regularly passed hands between News International and offices of Metropolitan Police, how Margaret Thatcher was the first prime minister to realize it was very hard to get elected in this country without the backing of the Murdoch press. So she was the first one to become an undignified sycophant to that organization, to that media tycoon, a pattern that’s been followed by every Prime Minister since including the current one.”

McMullen was then brought on and, while the conversation seemed relatively friendly at first (McMullen joked that the only thing missing from Grant’s story was that he still owed him money for the drinks), the sparks started flying when McMullen defended the practice of phone hacking.

“You should try real journalism,” Grant said. “Because you’re not an idiot. You could probably do it.”

Grant is set to testify in the case.

Watch the clip from the BBC below:

(h/t Hollywood Elsewhere)

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]