Peter Rhodes on a great interviewer, a test for dementia and the folly of comparing Britain with America
Entirely by chance, yesterday's column had references to the Great War poet Sassoon and the James Herriot classic, All Creatures Great and Small. So that's two Siegfrieds in one column. A personal best.
Louis Theroux, marking 25 years as one of television's outstanding interviewers, describes himself in his 20s as “a tool” and “a bit of a plonker.” But isn't that the secret of his success?
Oddballs open up to the gawky, seemingly-dim Theroux in a way that they wouldn't to a sharper questioner. Theroux is a master of his craft. And yet for someone working in television, he displayed a surprising gap in his knowledge, during his interview with Miriam Margolyes. She mentioned Wilfred Pickles. Theroux had never heard of him.
We spend far too much time looking at America. Many Brits assume that, because we speak the same language, all sorts of comparisons and predictions can be made. Take, for example, the view of Michael Fuller, Britain's only black chief constable (Kent, 2004-2010) who believes a George Floyd-style killing could happen here. The implication is that some British police have as little regard for the lives of civilians as the worst American cops. But the statistics suggest otherwise.
Consider the figures for police shootings. In 2018 US cops shot and killed 996 people. In the same year the combined police forces of England and Wales were involved in 20,000 firearms operations yet killed only three people. Trying to compare the UK and the US is pointless. We are a progressive, liberal European democracy. Parts of the United States, in terms of inequality, racial divisions, poor education, gun ownership and religious mania, are stuck in the Wild West.
A newly developed blood biomarker is claimed to predict Alzheimer’s years or even decades before symptoms appear. You may or may not consider this a blessing.
Be happy with any memory-test other than the cutlery test. This is the one where you make a mental note of all the knives, forks and spoons you need on the dining table yet return from the cutlery drawer with an entirely different collection. You may try to remember what you need by chanting: “Two knives and two forks / two knives and two forks” yet still return with five teaspoons and a potato masher. Not me, of course. Someone I know.
An email from my insurer: “Based on your recent experience with us, on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 is not at all likely and 10 is extremely likely, how likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend, colleague or relative?” And my response: “On a scale of 0-10 how bonkers would I be to recommend any insurance company to anybody without first having made a claim?”
The true test of an insurance firm is not the chatty, helpful person in the call centre who sells you the policy. It is how they treat you when your house burns down.
