Peter Rhodes on a great interviewer, a test for dementia and the folly of comparing Britain with America
Entirely by chance, yesterday's column had references to the Great War poet Sassoon and the James Herriot classic, All Creatures Great and Small. So that's two Siegfrieds in one column. A personal best.
Louis Theroux, marking 25 years as one of television's outstanding interviewers, describes himself in his 20s as “a tool” and “a bit of a plonker.” But isn't that the secret of his success?
Oddballs open up to the gawky, seemingly-dim Theroux in a way that they wouldn't to a sharper questioner. Theroux is a master of his craft. And yet for someone working in television, he displayed a surprising gap in his knowledge, during his interview with Miriam Margolyes. She mentioned Wilfred Pickles. Theroux had never heard of him.
We spend far too much time looking at America. Many Brits assume that, because we speak the same language, all sorts of comparisons and predictions can be made. Take, for example, the view of Michael Fuller, Britain's only black chief constable (Kent, 2004-2010) who believes a George Floyd-style killing could happen here. The implication is that some British police have as little regard for the lives of civilians as the worst American cops. But the statistics suggest otherwise.
