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Sir Robin Day: Grand Inquisitor
Robin Day's own story of his 34 years as a television interviewer. He offers a collection of opinions, ideas and anecdotes in this account of his rise as a reporter in the 1950s to becoming television's first knight.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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November 3, 2015Sir Robin Day was never restrained by modesty. In the pages of this book, from which the personal pronoun is seldom absent, he claims to have advocated a form of the Today programme two years before its birth, he advocated another project whi ultimately took to the air as Newsnight, and he was a forthright campaigner for many years for the live televising of parliament.
But his remarkable contribution to politics on TV rests on his time with Panorama, on twenty years as host of Question Time, and as an incisive interviewer, never more relevant than during general elections. He mounts a sturdy defence of his style, claiming that he was not a cross-examining barrister (though he had been called to the bar) but really nothing more than a journalist asking questions in search of information. Sadly, he came to believe that politicians - and their spin advisers - became so adept at saying only what they wanted to say, the "big interview" lost its validity.
These are essentially memoirs not autobiography but the reader may well conclude that he greatly liked Harold Wilson, sympathised with John Major and held ambivalent views about Margaret Thatcher. BBC insiders will enjoy his review of the Corporation's successive Directors General.
If there probably was something we might call "the Day Era"no one was better qualified to provide its memorial.
But his remarkable contribution to politics on TV rests on his time with Panorama, on twenty years as host of Question Time, and as an incisive interviewer, never more relevant than during general elections. He mounts a sturdy defence of his style, claiming that he was not a cross-examining barrister (though he had been called to the bar) but really nothing more than a journalist asking questions in search of information. Sadly, he came to believe that politicians - and their spin advisers - became so adept at saying only what they wanted to say, the "big interview" lost its validity.
These are essentially memoirs not autobiography but the reader may well conclude that he greatly liked Harold Wilson, sympathised with John Major and held ambivalent views about Margaret Thatcher. BBC insiders will enjoy his review of the Corporation's successive Directors General.
If there probably was something we might call "the Day Era"no one was better qualified to provide its memorial.
March 2, 2019
disappointing. One would expect at least lots of juicy character sketches of politicians, or even an exclusive insight into the political machinations of the UK throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. And what do you get instead? Sir Robin pontificating about how television should be. Pity
December 19, 2014
Interesting read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews