One or two people have remarked, quite rightly, about how good The Media Show interview of Andrew Neil is. This is Andrew Neil, not interviewing, but being interviewed.
He shows how it should be done. Not only are his answers to the point of the questions, but they are candid and, perhaps more importantly, his answers are consistently more interesting than the questions. It is not always so these days. The era of “gotcha” interviews has meant that all too often people being interviewed treat the whole process as a defensive campaign, in which the objective is to give away as little as possible.
There is no false modesty; Andrew Neil is understandably proud of a number of his achievements. In respect of some things, he says, “I would have done it differently if I were to do it again”, but in respect of others, he says, “Yes, that worked pretty well”.
He is also interesting about his technique when interviewing political figures. No shouting down or snide attacks, but a great deal of research beforehand – draft after draft after draft of crib sheets – so that he can ask pertinent follow-up questions whichever way they go.
Good for him.
phenell 