Listening to some of Roy Plomley’s Desert Island Discs archive recordings put me in mind of John Freeman, another BBC interviewer with a distinctive style who was himself a castaway of Plomley’s show in 1960.

Freeman was a Labour politician renowned for a technique that was more like a rigorous interrogation. A famous example is his controversial  Face to Face interview  with comic Tony Hancock which was first broadcast in February 1960..

You can watch this on You Tube and see how Freeman fires questions rapidly like a therapist working to a tight deadline –  “Why do you worry so much?” ……”Is your health a bit ropey?”….. “Are you religious?” …….“Why don’t you want children?”etc. etc. Continue reading →