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How Alex Brooker made political interviews interesting again

Alex Brooker’s Channel 4 encounter with Nick Clegg was a model of how to talk normally to a politician – and make them talk normally back

The other night on Channel 4, I watched the best political interview I’ve seen all year. It was with Nick Clegg, and conducted by a guy called Alex Brooker. And it gave me, if only for a few moments, a glimpse of a better world.

You’ll know who Nick Clegg is. Brooker, though, might have passed under your radar: he was only just on mine. He’s one of three hosts on a comedy show called The Last Leg, which launched during the Paralympics of 2012. Disability features heavily in the premise of the show, so I probably ought to mention that he has a prosthetic leg and something up with his hands. Although really that isn’t relevant at all. What matters is what he did with Nick Clegg.

They don’t do a lot of political interviews on The Last Leg. Brooker had a practice run last week, though, with Alastair Campbell. It started off gently; bit of comedic sparring. Then a sudden glint appeared in Brooker’s eyes. ‘Chilcot inquiry,’ he said, almost out of nowhere. ‘On a scale of one to ten, how much are you shitting yourself when that comes out?’ And Campbell stopped smiling.

It was better with Clegg. There was a big red button between the two of them this time, and when Brooker slapped it, a godly voice declaimed the word ‘bullshit’. His first question was ‘Boris Johnson: statesman or twat?’ Clegg didn’t flicker. ‘Bit more the latter,’ he said. Then Brooker asked him whether he preferred David Cameron or George Osborne, and Clegg grimaced and hit the button himself. Then, amid the laughter, things stepped up a gear.

‘What Tory policy,’ asked Brooker, ‘do you most agree with?’ Clegg wriggled, and talked about the deficit. ‘On a scale of one to ten, with one being “Couldn’t give a toss” and ten being “Literally cannot sleep at night”,’ said Brooker, ‘how shitty do you feel about what you did with the tuition fees?’ And Clegg wriggled again, and waffled, and Brooker slapped the bullshit button, and Clegg shrugged, and went with it, and said ‘nine and a half’.

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