ITV’s interview with Prince Harry was a missed opportunity

For days now, there has been great excitement about Prince Harry’s first UK television interview. Here, at long last, was a chance for a member of the great British press corps to ask the tough questions of the dilettante Duke of Sussex. Not for them, the soft-soaping, credulous quasi-therapy of an Oprah Winfrey light entertainment host. This would be probing, incisive, hard-hitting and accountable journalism at its finest.

So it was something of a disappointment then that Tom Bradby, ITV’s chosen man for the task, failed to live up to the hype. To be fair to Bradby, he had a tricky challenge. A longtime friend of the Prince, he was always going to face criticism for being too close to his subject. He also had to be respectful of the tragedy which Harry suffered at such a young age, while asking the difficult, but, necessary, questions about his interviewee’s (many) public statements concerning life post-Meghan.