Different types of interview call for different styles and different starting points. Hardest of all, and probably most important, he says, is the political interview - often a ‘jousting match’ from which the interviewee must not be allowed to slide away. Just as challenging is keeping the audience engaged.
Here Peter demonstrates how he approaches direct, fact-finding interviews and on-air encounters with ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
On the latter, his advice is to:
- Listen to the answers and do not become preoccupied with the questions
- Try to understand and empathise with the interviewee
- Engage and converse
- Challenge only if a statement demands it, or if it will improve the quality of the conversation.
The political interview, which can cover anybody who is an official spokesman for a particular body or point of view, demands a different approach:
- Challenge evasions and unfounded propaganda without making the whole exercise a shouting match
- There is a balance to be struck, depending on how far the interviewee is stretching the boundaries of credibility, but in general the first answer should simply be listened to
- After that, in contrast to the non-political interview, the interviewer should stick to the question and demand an answer
- The interviewer should be well briefed, good humoured but firm, and never bad tempered.
