New Newsnight - Newsnight Lite?

[Serial_Apologist]

Watching Evan Davies's interview with Owen Patterson last night (an interview which got nowhere) I realised what was wrong with ED - he wriggles, never sits still in his desperation to make his point. It looks weak. His media-trained subjects are taught to sit still and keep their hands still, he flails about. It ought to be them wriggling.

Maybe he's having difficulty breathing, in the tight jackets he wears. But I agree entirely.

[Serial_Apologist]

I vaguely recall Eddy Mair - must have been a Friday Night Tryout for the vacant to be post. He still got nowhere with his interviewee, but he was calm, and somehow he makes it more painfully obvious that the reason why nothing useful is being said by the interviewee is entirely to do with them, despite his best efforts. To me, he does this on the radio too , but all in a less disdainful way than Paxman. Mind you, after the number of years Paxman had in the role, and having agreed to stay on to give Newsnight a better chance of survival, its no wonder he got to the point of not being able to conceal his low regard for the political, business etc characters he was interviewing.

Indeed - devil's advocacy - ostensibly for the sake of impartiality - is subject to the laws of diminishing returns.