On Thursday night journalist James Delingpole floundered badly as a guest on This Week (BBC1).
Pressed by presenter Andrew Neil to justify his defence of a no deal Brexit (which I also support), the Spectator columnist eventually bailed out of the uncomfortable inquisition by saying, with frank and engaging honesty:
“Um, I don’t know the answer to that.”
Delingpole - who spoke at a Forest event a few years ago - has now written a long mea culpa, ‘What it’s like to die on a BBC politics show’, in which he admitted the cardinal sin of not preparing properly.
It reminded me of something I wrote in 2016:
This may sound obvious but some people don't prepare properly for interviews. Despite years of experience I'm not immune to this either. For example, there have been occasions when I've blithely agreed to do an interview without asking what they want me to talk about. Live on air I've then been asked questions I wasn't prepared for. I've muddled my way through but it's not been a comfortable experience.
I've also agreed to do interviews at short notice on subjects I knew relatively little about at the time and almost come a cropper. On one occasion, ironically, I was saved by Clive Bates, the former director of ASH (although he didn't know it). It was a few years ago and we were talking about e-cigarettes when the presenter suddenly asked me to explain exactly how they worked and how much they cost. There was a short silence while my brain stood still. Thankfully Clive stepped in with the answers. (Don't worry, I know now!)
That (and another interview on food) taught me never to give an interview without being reasonably well briefed on the subject in advance. It may sound obvious but over-confidence or failure to do homework trips everyone up eventually.
See ‘Rough guide to dealing with the media’ (Taking Liberties).
"President Trump has already said he is happy to give us a fantastic deal" @JamesDelingpole tells @afneil #bbctw pic.twitter.com/E6Ci4S0s9N
— BBC This Week (@bbcthisweek) January 25, 2019