James Naughtie

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After a 32-year-old co-presents knew the BBC Radio 4 Today's John Humphrys , exactly how he wanted to sound his last program.

"had I told the Big Boss that I wanted to leave without much fuss at All ," he explains. "Five Minutes after nine on The Morning of my last program, I would say, 'That was it from us, Oh and by the way, this is my last program. And since I'm leaving, here are a few thoughts. '

"you vetoed, because it simply would not work. And you convinced me. "

As a result of the BBC's flagship radio news programme ended up as quite an event.

Humphrys, former Prime Minister , David Cameron spoke for its final 08:10 Interview - The Most prestigious slot on the program. Tony Blair and Dame Edna Everage, from appearances, and for his closure Element Humphrys was joined some former co-hosts, including James Naughtie , Sarah Montague and Sue McGregor.

"I was actually, despite My Reputation , rather touched," he says (despite thinking it was "slightly" over-the-top").

The timing of Humphrys' departure is a little surprising, considering it came Six Weeks before the Brexit period. But he says he was not trying to "absolutely in the least," something to hang on, adding that "there is always another reason to stay a little longer".

Humphrys presents Today with (clockwise from top left), Sue MacGregor, Brian Redhead , Mishal Husain and James Naughtie , It is a recurring theme in the articles that were written about Humphrys to the time of his departure. Words like "Rottweiler" and "grumpy" crop up rather a lot.

"With All The Boss -class, he was hot-tempered, impatient and splendidly argumentative," "For the last 20 years or more, high-ranking personalities from the world of wanted him to. They are considered to be macho in his approach. "

In The New Statesman , Humphrys ", excelled on the big Gladiator fight; in his prime, there was nobody better, in case of questions, wanted to listen to the listeners".

Now that both Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman left the BBC, it is a proposal that may have had their combative style of questioning in his day. In fact, the Radio 4 PM presenter as a "worn out" and "not a public service".

Humphrys describes this in detail in his memoirs, published This Week . "I don't want to, think of The Audience that we moderators and politicians, we are the best buddies or even friends are interviewing," he writes in A Day Like Today. "Evan is often used their first name in the air. I always refused to do, and I do not wish to have you with us. "

His own impatience in interviews, he now says Bbc News , is mostly on the politicians, who, he says, "refuse to engage on any level at All " exchange, he finds "ungrateful and useless".

Humphrys, pictured with the British armed forces on their military base in Basra, Iraq, in 2003, "It is, if you ask them a perfectly sensible question, and you can use this gambit to avoid answering them and you can see, they had media training, or you have been told by your spin doctor not to answer. The Audience sees through you. I have more complaints about politicians who simply refused to answer the question, than Anything Else . "

But he also points out that changes in the survey of styles mean, over The Years , necessarily, the moderators today are not less effective than in The Past .

"Justin [Webb] is just as tough as I was," Humphrys says Today is one of the remaining hosts. "He can approach a little more plasticizers, and he could act in an Interview , rather more gently than I, But you realize, when you hear that he knows what's going on, he's doing his homework, and wait for The Killer question, and it will come. "

Humphrys, Webb ' s warm relationship was evidenced by the fact that Webb was chosen to co-host of the 76-year-old the final program. But he also realized Humphrys' occasional bad mood, writing in the Radio Times, Humphrys would not hesitate to "shout" and "throw things" when he was unhappy.

Humphrys interviewed former Prime Minister David Cameron during his last 08:10 Interview "is Untrue. Justin will hear from my lawyer," Humphrys responds in jest (we think), when this on him. "You see," he continues, "I worked, until, before and sometimes also during the program, I was engaged and I was there half not.

"I Am extremely quarrelsome by instinct, I'm pretty much a fighter - not physically - and if I see something that I reject, if I have the running order, or, in short, I will say so. And for some people, I'm able to have a perfectly rational and reasonable discussions. With other people, for whatever reason, personality clashes or whatever, I'll occasionally my temper lose. I'm always sorry when I do. "

How many times has he threatened to quit?

"wait a minute, how long do we have?" To include, he claims jokingly, on both hands. "I'm afraid that rather child, I threatened to withdraw, once or Twice a few times already, probably. "

't remember many specific examples, But in 2016, that such an opportunity was, as Humphrys found out that he would not be presented on The Morning of the EU referendum result. (In the end, he did present a program, with Montague . )

As a young reporter, Humphrys reported on the Liverpool dock strikes Humphrys' memoirs are some of his thoughts on how journalism and the BBC have changed since he started, presents itself Today in 1987.

One of The Most important developments of the last few years, the annual publication of the BBC-stars " salaries, after the pressure of the government. This has led to All kinds of problems for the company, not least emerged.

Some of the moderators, has a Problem with The List , the publication is, But Humphrys says that he has "always been happy with him".

"And I have always been confused by the BBC's refusal, so far, to do this. I'm still ashamed of it never, how much money I have earned. There was a time when I was earning a very large amount in fact. "In 2016/17, Humphrys earned Between £600,000-£650,000, before he took a pay cut to around £290,000. "But the license payer has a right to know. "

However, as the BBC information began to rich salaries, it lost some of its biggest names in the commercial sector, including Chris Evans , Simon Mayo and Eddie Mair . Although not the only factor in their exits,

"Well, let it [a]," answers Humphrys. "Look, you have to deal with if someone wants to, Eddie Mair , what is to stop you ringing him, and said: 'How much do you make, Eddie? Oh, well, we can double'. It is a market, and if you want to take it from the BBC, in order. "

Several past and present moderators and editors Humphrys, for his final programme, he started His relationship with Mair, by the way, were depicted in the book, tense.

Humphrys recalls an occasion when the former PM presenter-fronted be an article on the leaky one, in which she appeared to make light of the gap Between the sexes revealed by The Star -salaries-list. Humphrys, he admits that he "went ballistic" about it, as Mair taken in attack, the events on the air, without a right of reply.

He is not, however, Express regret, and "takes full responsibility" for his discussion with Philip himself. "I believed, naively, that the people you work with are not sitting there, listening secretly to your conversations that you think are little private chats at four o'clock in The Morning , when both of the mickey take of each other. But I find the reaction to be absurd. "

Humphrys added that he has "a vague suspicion", who leaked the recording, But refuses to name names.

'Absolute tosh'Notably, Humphrys is not on Twitter, something virtually unthinkable that a journalist in the year 2019. The Social Media platform is a crucial tool for reporters.

to stay in the face of the former Director-General of the failure, about the news headlines and spot earlier, it is not refused hypocritical for Humphrys in such a platform?

"It's a very Good Question , But let me throw it back to you," he says. "When Donald Trump tweets something important, is it in the Newspapers and on every single electrical outlet immediately? Yes. I read All these Newspapers? Yes. So the idea is that by not spending eight hours of my day to read every idiotic and sometimes bizarre or offensive tweets, I'm kind of missing something is absolute tosh. "

Humphrys' Interview with George Entwistle contributed, BBC director-general's resignation to say that he will not have to learn the editions of his radio retirement to How To use Social Media . Instead, Humphrys is very interested in a couple of months, although he continued to be available Mastermind on Bbc Two .

The Most important question is of course whether he is considering Strictly Come Dancing and now he is free from the constraints of the as a serious news presenter.

bbc, john humphrys, radio

Source of news: bbc.com