One of the
great privileges of being a journalist is that you meet some truly remarkable
people. In the age of the selfie it is popular to have a photo with someone
famous; but such encounters rarely go beyond a few words such as ‘all the best!’
But the journalist holds conversations with people which often touch on matters
of personal or even international significance. These conversations are often
termed ‘interviews’; but for any interview to succeed it must be a
conversation.
If the
journalist simply sticks rigidly to a list of prepared questions he or she
risks not responding to some key point which the interviewee may make, and
which may take the conversation in an unexpected and much more interesting
direction. Weak politicians (it tends to be politicians) sometimes ask for a list
of questions in advance. They’re weak, because it shows that they feel incapable
of moving outside their comfort zone. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask what
will be the topic of the interview, but if you have to give a list of questions
in advance then you might as well not bother. You want a conversation with
another human being, not a pre-programmed response from a robot.
The Author interviewing Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992 |
Because the
main focus of my work over the years has been Russia, many of the remarkable
people I’ve interviewed have been Russians, and many of them politicians. In
terms of well-known politicians those who particularly stand out are the only
man ever to hold the title of President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev
(whom I interviewed three times) and the one-time Soviet Foreign Minister and
later President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze. It took until the third
interview with Gorbachev before I truly felt that we had a conversation
(initially it felt as if I was being lectured, including one answer to a
question which went on for 43 minutes). But the first time I met Shevardnadze
the recorded interview lasted 20 minutes, but we sat and chatted for a further
hour and a half!
Shaking hands with Eduard Shevardnadze after a fascinating meeting in 1991 |
But
remarkable people are not just politicians (in fact, I can think of many
unremarkable politicians of various nationalities). And the most remarkable
Russian I ever interviewed was Dr Andrei Gnezdilov, the co-founder in 1990 of
the first Russian hospice. When I first met him in England in 2001 I was so
stunned by what he was telling me that I stopped recording and told him that I
would visit his hospice just outside St Petersburg and make a feature-length
radio programme, which I did later that year.
Of British
politicians I interviewed, Geoffrey Howe (later Lord Howe) was a classic ‘send
me the questions in advance’, even though I had made it clear that I wanted to
speak to him about Britain’s relations with Russia. The liveliest and most
interesting conversation, despite my not agreeing with much of what he said,
was with Tony Benn. Perhaps that was because he liked nothing more than a good
argument!
As a
freelancer it is my intention now to speak to genuinely Remarkable People,
which means that there may be few politicians in this column! The first
Remarkable Person, Irina Margareta Nistor, is not only not a politician, but is
neither Russian nor British; but she has a fascinating tale to tell of life in
and after the Romania ruled by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
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