tjh290633 wrote:It takes a lot to beat Brian Walden's interviewing technique.
I remember John Freeman making Gilbert Harding cry.
Yes - add Brian Walden to the list. He could be stroppy but that put interviewees on their toes.
Worth noting that Walden and Freeman has both also been MPs so knew life on both sides of the fence
And I also remember Freeman's 'Harding' Face to Face and the aftermath: it seems likely that Freeman - who asked pertinent and sometimes pointed questions but was not callous - simply hadn't known that Harding's mother (to whom Harding was most attached) had died a few years previously and that Harding had been present at the last.
The only time I remember Freeman being wrong-footed by an even deeper reply to a deep question was in his 'Jung' Face to Face (recommended, and on YouTube) when he asked Jung was he a believer and Jung's reply was ' I don’t need to believe. I KNOW' - a reply that stumped Freeman.
In passing, I have sincere admiration (an a touch of envy!) for anyone capable of doing lengthy interviews with those preeminent in their field such as Bertrand Russell and Jung. I would have loved to have seen a Freeman Face to Face with Maynard Keynes had not the latter's life been cut short.
And Keynes would also have made a formidable Face to Face interviewer... a very Big Beast