This week in I talked to the historian and
journalist, Lord Peter Hennessy, about his new series ‘Reflections’, broadcast
on Radio 4 at 9am on Thursdays.
Most of our correspondents loved the two episodes which
have been transmitted so far, one with
Baroness Shirley Williams, and the other with Jack Straw, but others thought the
whole thing too cosy, with its references to Roy (Jenkins), Jim (Callaghan) and
Harold (Wilson), and with the peers calling each other Shirley and Peter.
As I am about the same age as Peter Hennessy, and produced
political programmes when his interviewees were in their heyday, I was
fascinated. I understood the references to the Labour civil wars of the late
1970s and early 80s, as I went (as a producer) to the conferences where blood
was spilt and ‘brothers and sisters’ were knifed in the front as well as the
back. Figures like Peter Shore and Barbara Castle are still vivid in my memory,
but they must be obscure politicians to younger listeners, rather as Hugh
Dalton was a bit of a mystery to me.
Was Peter Hennessy too soft on his subjects? Well I guess
the answer depends on whether, by using a more gentle approach, he got things out of
his guests which an aggressive frontal
assault would not have done.
However I think there are significant differences between retrospective
interviews like these, in which the facts are well known, and contemporary
interviews where they are not, and the presenter is trying to find out what
happened. Of course, in the former case, the interviewee may still try to put
the best possible interpretation on past events, hoping to affect how history
is written. However, in these retrospective cases, the fog of battle has
largely lifted. Interpretation is involved rather than revelation.
It obviously helps that Peter Hennessy is greatly respected and well liked; but as he is
also an outstanding historian, with impeccable s in Whitehall, his guests
know better than to try to pull the wool over his eyes. They need to be subtler
than that.
You may find it strange that, in the week of the publication
of the
BBC Annual Report, neither the Chairman, nor the
Director General was
available to be interviewed on
. We also asked the
Director of Radio,
Helen Boaden, to talk to us. She also declined.
As the BBC is committed to ability and is
perhaps the most high profile programme through which they are supposed to be
able to their audience, one of them will surely be available to talk to
us in the future? Surely?
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