Earlier today I did a 25 minute interview with Camila Batmangehlidh from Kid’s Company. We covered a lot of ground. It was one of those interviews where as an interviewer you know you’re going to struggle to cover anything new, as she had been all over the BBC for most of yesterday. However, there were new allegations overnight and I really wanted to corner over some of the things she had alleged, in particular her view that the government was trying to silence her because she knew too much about the child sex abuse inquiry.
I went into the interview with few predetermined view about her, apart from the fact that I thought she had done some excellent work with some very damaged children, but had probably made a lot of mistakes in the administration of the organisation due it growing too quickly.
It was one of those interviews where, as an interviewer, you think you’re probably going to get further with an interviewee, and more out of them, if you don’t appear too aggressive, and show some empathy for the situation they find themselves in. It doesn’t prevent you asking some tough questions, but it means that by not hectoring them you’re going to get more out of them in the long run. That’s why it was important the interview lasted longer than the usual six or seven minutes.
