Sony Awards: Listen to the interviewer of the year nominees

Sony radio awards nominations are out today and the nominees for best radio interview are definitely worth a listen.

From the BBC there are interviews by Eddie Mair with John Hutton, the former Defence Secretary, on why he decided to stand down.

Mair asks him 8 times whether he did, in fact, say “Gordon Brown would be a fucking disaster as the Prime Minister” before finally getting him to relent and admit that the quote was by him.

Worth checking out for Mair’s gentle interviewing style, and relentless pursuit of the key detail.

Also worthy of note is Victoria Derbyshire interview with Peter Bacon on BBC’s Radio 5 Live. Bacon is a chef accused and subsequently acquitted of rape, with whom she is extremely gentle, carefully treading round what is clearly a very traumatic experience for him.

She gauges his reaction carefully to his accuser, who she previously interviewed, playing a clip from her show where the female criminal lawyer who brought the charge talks about visiting a church and finding forgiveness in her heart, despite the fact that the jury returned a verdict of not guilty and the judge said that the woman’s claim that she was too drunk to consent was completely wrong.

Harrowing, honest and often hard to listen to, but well worth it.

Next up is Toby Foster’s interview with the new Mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies.

The interview reveals that Davies ran on pledges to cut funding for a Gay Pride festival, about which he appeared to know nothing about in terms of how much revenue it brought to the city or how much it cost to put on, and and a pledge to cut the amount of city councillors down from 60 to 20, something which he is not mandated to do.

Frank Lampard called into LBC to debate James O’Brien after being characterised as a lowlife for allowing his kids to live in a state worse than his own. O’Brien handles himself well despite the fact that Lampard has got the wrong impression about his previous comments, and conducts the interview with consummate professionalism despite being somewhat abused by Lampard.

Finally, Jenni Murray’s interview with Sharon Shoesmith on Woman’s Hour for BBC Radio 4 where she allows Shoesmith to defend herself whilst still being straight and to the point about her responsibilities in protecting Baby P.