The high turn-out in the recent Scottish Referendum (84.59 per cent) showed how politics can galvanise large numbers of young and old to exercise their democratic right to choose on matters of national importance.

Voting is a right we enjoy throughout the UK and we also have a great pedigree of incisive political interviews.

The 9Oth birthday of Nuffield College’s Sir David Butler was celebrated in St Peter’s Chapel in New Inn Hall Street with a talk by David Dimbleby.

So the doyen of political interviewers paid tribute to the doyen of election pollsters, in a sparkling account of the history and future of journalists holding politicians to account.

Amusing and urbane, Dimbleby romped through a succession of political interviews – from Harold Macmillan’s unruffled charm, to Lord Callaghan’s face-off . A self-confessed “wily old bird”, Callaghan stopped the interviewer by turning away from the camera, until he changed the subject.

Lord Hailsham was particularly tetchy. He challenged the interviewer on every point, until he was finally so provoked, he started out of his chair, threatening to loom up in terrifying close-up.

Off-camera, according to Dimbleby, “he was affability itself – sweet to everyone, including the hapless journalist”.

Working alongside the legendary Sir Robin Day, Dimbleby watched a political interview taking place. Afterwards, Day asked him what he thought. Not much, Dimbleby replied: “He didn’t reveal much at all.”

“Not the answers, YOU FOOL, the questions. What did you think of the questions?” replied Day Turf was important in establishing the advantage – yours or theirs? Panorama or Number 10? While many politicians were awed by the studio, Mrs Thatcher was not.

“She would disarm you by asking for a light lowered there – or a vase of flowers, just so,” Dimbleby remembered, saying Mrs Thatcher was by far the most difficult politician to get under the skin of. He recalled how Brian Walden could not corner her, despite an elaborate mind map he had constructed for blocking every escape and evasion. After a long run-up, Walden accused the PM of belligerence and a domineering attitude. Mrs Thatcher replied calmly: “The only person being belligerent and domineering is you, Brian.”

The sofa was the beginning of the end of the tradition of long, penetrating “hard chair” interviews. “It’s difficult to hold someone to account on a sofa,” Dimbleby explained.

Showing clips of how penetrating audience questions could be from the BBC’s Question Time programme – the most popular of all political broadcasts – Dimbleby hoped for two future trends: firstly, more opportunities for politicians to face the public, and be called to account by the electorate directly and secondly the return of the long, unhurried, probing political interview when the politician is allowed to answer fully, without the tyranny of the soundbite.

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