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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

issue 07 February 2015

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.

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