How Blair avoided Paxman 'skewering'

It was billed as the political interview of the year - Tony Blair's first fullscale mauling by the rottweiler of television, Jeremy Paxman. Broadcast over three evenings, the grilling allowed the Prime Minister to claim he was not afraid of tough questioning, and gave the BBC a ratings boost for its flagging Newsnight programme.

The Evening Standard has pieced together the extraordinary deal which set up the interview, as well as the actual filming, down to the tiniest detail, including tea-breaks.

The agreement between programme editor George Entwhistle and Alastair Campbell saw filming carefully structured into three separate sections, preventing Paxman from "skewering" the Prime Minister on a single issue.

And it permitted the extraordinary spectacle - unseen by viewers - of Mr Campbell, Mr Blair's all-powerful communications and strategy chief, halting filming to correct his boss on a factual error.

The seeds of this week's interview, ostensibly to mark the fifth anniversary of Labour coming to power, were sown at a meeting between Mr Entwhistle and Mr Campbell at Downing Street.

Over a mug of tea, Mr Campbell laid out his opening gambit. Why should he consent to any interview by Paxman? All he would do would be to "kebab" Mr Blair with question after question on sleaze and Labour party fundraising.

Mr Entwhistle knew he had to tread carefully. He desperately wanted a Blair interview to haul his programme back to somewhere near its glory days as an agenda setter, so compromises were necessary.

However, Mr Campbell wanted something too. His overarching agenda of neutralising the tightly knit group of Westminster lobby correspondents depended on pushing the Prime Minister forward directly in one-to-one interviews.

He also wanted to avoid the sneering of what he dismissively calls the "commentariat"- - political pundits, newspaper columnists and other opinion formers - that Mr Blair is more at home on the GMTV sofa than the Paxman inquisitor's couch.

The result was a bizarre three-part interview, filmed in separate sections and screened on successive nights. Crucially the session was further split up under a series of subheadings: public services, Iraq and foreign policy, the euro and party funding among others.

This stopped Paxman building up a head of steam and trapping Mr Blair on a single subject. No single session lasted more than 20 minutes. According to those present, interviewer and interviewee drank a cup of tea between the first and second sessions, while the third followed on "almost seamlessly". All in all, Paxman and his crew were in Downing Street for about 75 minutes.

The interview took place in the Cabinet room. Although it began at about 11am on Tuesday, the curtains were drawn to create a "studio effect".

Paxman was accompanied by an editor and a crew while Mr Blair had a three-person team, headed by Mr Campbell and featuring official spokesman Godric Smith and Hilary Coffman, his longest-serving aide.

The atmosphere before the cameras started rolling was edgy. Paxman tried to question Mr Blair on a heavyweight topic but was politely rebuffed. Instead, the conversation took a strange turn with the interviewer complimenting the PM on his choice of socks. "My mother-in-law gave them to me," Mr Blair replied. "They have to have distinguishing marks or the boys (elder sons Euan and Nicky) nick them."

BBC insiders feel that during the first section, in which Mr Blair was pressed on Stephen Byers and the state of the railways, the strange format affected Paxman who was "not very Paxman-ish". They claimed he regained his form during the last two, however, and pointed to his asking of the same question six times during the Wednesday night session: did Mr Blair agree with President Bush about an "axis of evil" group of states?

It was at the start of the second phase that Mr Campbell made his intervention. With a minute of filming gone, and Mr Blair four sentences into a reply on Afghanistan, Mr Campbell's off-screen voice boomed out that only one-fifth of the country's poppy crop had been destroyed, not one-third as the Prime Minister had said.

"I don't think we can really stop again, Alastair," an exasperated Paxman claimed. But it was too late. Mr Blair, striking an apologetic tone, claimed: "If they say it's a fifth it's a fifth but it's not what my briefing paper said." The cameras began to roll again and the session restarted.

Both sides, the BBC and Downing Street, insist that Mr Campbell made only a single intervention. At the end of the third session, the atmosphere was more relaxed.

Mr Blair matily told Paxman he was not surprised by one of his final questions - on if and when he would give up as PM - and drew comparisons with the longevity of Lady Thatcher. Did the former Prime Minister really use the phrase widely attributed to her and claim she would "go on and on and on?" Mr Blair asked. Paxman was forced to admit he did not know.

After drawing breath, both sides professed themselves happy with the outcome of the interview. Newsnight's viewing figures were up by 50 per cent on Tuesday night to 1.8million.

Equally importantly, the slick PR operation mounted by the programme, involving prescreenings for Westminster journalists and the swift email of full transcripts, put Newsnight firmly back on the political agenda .

Downing Street was also pleased. A source said: "We think it was a positive thing to have done. This is all about getting the Prime Minister's voice heard directly and in doing that he has to expose himself to tough interviewing.

"Nobody can say it did not cover the waterfront or that it was not a tough inquisition."

Perhaps. But the real test of Mr Blair's maturity will come when he is put on the spot by Paxman or John Humphrys without Mr Campbell by his side.

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