The late Brian Walden was a rare beast. In public, a ferocious, intelligent and charismatic debater; in private a warm and witty friend to those, like me, who cut their teeth as researchers on his legendary interview programme Weekend World. He was no oil painting (a “tight-faced . . . little fellow” according to Richard Crossman). He could not pronounce the letter R. But in the early 1980s, his screen presence was compelling enough to carry off an hour-long lecture on monetarism. Today, a minute on such an obscure topic would be considered too long for most viewers.

His career as television’s great inquisitor was ended not by his own shortcomings but by the fact that politicians knew they weren’t up to it. The