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For one of the country’s most consummate media performers it was a disaster. The Guardian described Boris Johnson’s appearance with Eddie Mair on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday as a “bicycle crash of an interview”. According to his own paper, the Daily Telegraph, Johnson “looked distinctly uncomfortable,” while the FT described it as a “night-Mair”.

Having discussed immigration and the Olympic stadium the second part of the interview was about a new profile of Johnson by veteran documentary maker Michael Cockrell. Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise is airing tonight at 9pm on BBC2

Here, one of Media First’s team of experienced, high level media and communications trainers provides a commentary on Mair's interview.

8 mins 30 secs: Mair puts the first accusation to him. “The Times,” he says. “Let you go after you made up a quote.” Johnson looks flabbergasted and then starts bumbling. Unlike his usual bluster, though, in this case he doesn’t come back with a convincing answer. Eventually he almost pleads: “Are you sure your viewers wouldn't want to hear more about housing in London?” Frankly, no, because, as Eddie Mair well knows, this is much more fun. It would have been better here for Johnson not to have asked the question but simply to have firmly and confidently moved the conversation onto housing – or any other subject. In these difficult situations, the trick is to answer the question and then to make the transition to your own agenda smoothly and convincingly.

9 mins 12 secs: “Well, I mean,” continues Johnson. “I mildly sandpapered something somebody said, and yes it's very embarrassing and I'm very sorry about it.” “Mildly sandpapered?” What an interesting phrase. Johnson is right to apologise here but using a wriggling little euphemism like this simply doesn’t work. An outright and complete apology puts an aggressive interviewer in a very difficult situation. I recently advised a company leader how to handle a Watchdog interview with Anne Robinson. He followed my advice and apologised unreservedly at the start of the interview. He’d shot Robinson’s fox and she ended up using the remaining two and half minutes for a chat with him rather than an attack.

9 mins 20 secs: Clearly irritated with Johnson’s “sandpapering” comment Mair asks: “Let me ask you about a barefaced lie. When you were in Michael Howard’s team, you denied to him you were having an affair. It turned out you were and he sacked you for that. Why did you lie to your party leader?”

9 mins 25 secs: Johnson is floundering: “Well, I mean again, I’m…with great respect…on that, I never had any conversation with Michael Howard about that matter and, you know, I don’t propose …”. He would be much better taking charge and simply apologising. He could also point out that many people have had affairs (thereby putting the issue into context) and add that he regrets it entirely.

“Why don’t we talk about something else?” asks Johnson. Er, because this is a great story, is the short answer. Again there is no way Mair is going to voluntarily to give up on this. Johnson shouldn’t ask, he just should simply do it - just take control and change the subject.

10 mins 20 secs: Having listed the accusations against Johnson, Mair concludes: “You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?” Over the top? Perhaps. But this might even have worked in the Mayor’s favour. Certainly, he does two things right at this stage. First, he doesn’t lose his temper despite this apparently offensive comment. Second, he doesn’t repeat it. Repeating a negative phrase simply emphasises it in the mind of the audience and in a press interview it allows the journalist to quote you saying it.

10 mins 30 secs: Johnson is now bleeding on the ropes. He could, though, play his final card. He could say that he has apologised for these things and he could then appeal to the audience and try to create some empathy by saying something such as “We’ve all done things that we regret.”

11 mins 47 secs: Johnson is asked yet again about his prime ministerial ambitions. Amazingly, he doesn’t still seem to have an answer to this very obvious question. It’s one thing to appear to consider or even joke about such a point but Johnson simply looks evasive by avoiding answering it altogether.

13 mins 44 secs: “I thought I was coming on to talk about the Budget and housing in London.” Well, you’re very naïve, then, Boris. You should have known that a Michael Cockrell hatchet job would be more interesting. Preparation is essential for a good interview and that includes having answers ready for other issues related to your brief.

14 mins 40 secs: Finally Boris starts on his own agenda, attacking Labour. “What people want to know is…they don’t care about phone conversations with my friends twenty years ago, they don’t care [about] some ludicrous, so-called made up quote, and what’s the third accusation? I can’t remember.”

Unfortunately by this stage it’s all too late.

The Mayor of London has made a virtue of appearing to be spontaneous and slightly chaotic during his interviews. In fact, though, he plans and prepares for each interview thoroughly. He might appear to bluster and bluff his way through but in reality he knows exactly what he wants to say. Part of his skill as an interviewee is that he rides the current anti-politics wave, avoiding slick sound bites and appearing to consider any issue and talk about it personally rather than just firing off a planned response immediately.

It’s something we tell our media training clients. Appearing too slick and using pat phrases will simply alienate your audience. You need to answer the question and discuss the issue honestly as well as putting across your message. Why Boris Johnson failed to do this on Sunday remains to be seen.

You can see Mair's interview with Boris Johnson here.