Andrew Neil, host of the BBC’s This Week, has announced he is to retire from hosting the weekly late-night political talk show. BBC bosses took the opportunity to announce that the programme itself would be axed altogether. Predictably the latter announcement provoked a wave of social media outrage. It will make no difference, and on this occasion, it is the right call by the Beeb.
But Andrew Neil is far too big a journalistic figure to be defined by a single TV programme. Like David Attenborough or David Dimbleby, he is a titan of broadcasting, but it is fair to say This Week is Andrew Neil. The programme is built around him and his personality – and that is its magic, its secret ingredient. To watch This Week is to be invited into Mr Neil’s home and to feel a participant in a discussion as a personal guest.
As with the two Davids, Andrew Neil has become not merely a reporter or presenter but a broadcaster. There are all too few of them about, and even fewer as far one can see in the making. With the notable exception of Fiona Bruce, who is clearly a broadcasting titan in the making, there is all too little really big TV presenting talent around. So what next for Mr Neil?
Current coverage of British politics has exposed dramatically the shallowness of most of those tasked with covering it. Too often ignorance of history, process, and politics itself blights reporting and analysis. Often watching or listening to a political report on TV or radio is akin to trying to read a newspaper report filled with spelling mistakes and factual errors.
Andrew Neil is one of a very small number of political interviewers who can robustly interrogate those who govern us without leaving a trail of rancour in his work. He is, incidentally, even more robust on twitter. If the BBC is serious about its public broadcasting responsibilities it will find or create another slot for him. Of existing programmes both Today and Newsnight would benefit from his presence. Or a new documentary series should be considered.
Attenborough and Dimbleby are 92 and 80 respectively and both seem to have plenty of steam left in the boiler. At 69 Andrew Neil is a mere broadcasting stripling, barely warmed up. There can be little doubt that other channels would snap him up if given the chance. It may be that Mr Neil wants to spend more time travelling between his various homes and dogs, but this is not a good use of so effective a talent. Britain is embarking on the most extraordinary national journey in a generation. It needs its best talent at the top of their game in every sphere of its public, political and business life. That ought to mean the BBC moves swiftly to keep Andrew Neil on its payroll and create another bigger and broader platform from which he can do his part to inform and entertain the nation.