It’s that time of year again.
No, not Christmas, but our look back at the media interviews from 2016 which, to put it kindly, did not go quite to plan.
With a closely fought EU referendum and a US presidential election in 2016, we were spoilt for choice with interviews of politicians from both sides of the Atlantic.
And some of them were so bad they simply cannot be, err, trumped. So we decided as far as possible to leave politics out of this year’s selection.
Instead we have looked back over the year and narrowed it down to the five interviews that really stuck in our minds for all the wrong reasons.
Ken Starr
The chances are if you are in the UK you have not heard of Ken Starr.
But don’t let that put you off because Mr Starr was involved in one of the most remarkable media interviews of 2016. And not in a good way.
The problem for Mr Starr is that his media training bizarrely took place mid-interview.
The former Baylor University president was being interviewed on a Texas TV station when he produced a response which was not to his PR advisor’s satisfaction.
The advisor, Merrie Spaeth, asked the reporter’s news director off camera not to use that part of the interview. And when he refused she took Mr Starr away from the camera for some impromptu media training.
But the saga didn’t quite end there. When the filming resumed Mr Starr answered the question again before immediately turning to his advisor for approval as if he was still on a course practising answers.
Not surprising it was the interruption rather than the message which took the headlines.
Steve Hedley
Trade union boss Steve Hedley is in danger of becoming something of a permanent fixture in our ‘worst interviews of the year’ compilations.
Not content with his 2015 inclusion, the RMT leader certainly made an impactful start to his LBC interview earlier this year when he immediately launched into a crude joke about Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
He said: “I didn’t realise Jeremy Hunt was his real name – I thought it was cockney rhyming slang.”
The remark saw him earn an on air rebuke from LBC presenter Shelagh Fogarty but Mr Hedley was determined to go completely off-message and said: “I think all the Tories are an absolute disgrace, they should be taken out and shot to be quite frank with you.”
After such a bizarre start could any listeners remember any of the messages he tried to get across during the rest of the interview?
Roy Hodgson and Martin Glenn
The England football team certainly didn’t produce much on the pitch to cheer us up this summer, but the bosses did at least produce a memorable press conference.
Called in the aftermath of the team’s embarrassing Euro 2016 exit, the shambolic conference mirrored performances on the pitch.
Firstly a confused looking Roy Hodgson, who had just resigned as the manager, told gathered reporters “I don’t really know what I’m doing here”. Strong start.
This was swiftly followed by Martin Glenn, the man overseeing the search for the next manager, declaring “I’m not a football expert”. Twice.
The resulting headlines pretty much wrote themselves.
Sir Philip Green
The doorstep interview lost none of its ability to trip up experienced media spokespeople in 2016.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn continued to have problems with this interview style but the more memorable one was Sir Philp Green and his less than impressive performance when a Sky News journalist and cameraman approached him in the Greek Islands.
The bizarre scene started with the reporter alleging the former BHS boss had squirted him with water while Sir Phillip repeatedly told him to’ go away’.
More dramatic was the attempt to push the camera away and the threat to throw the equipment in the sea.
Unsurprisingly, this performance generated more negative headlines for the businessman.
Alan Quinn
If we were giving out a prize for the most awkward interview of the year this one would take the honours.
Cllr Alan Quinn appeared on Good Morning Britain to defend his council’s bin collection policy and an awkward exchange with presenter Susannah Reid ended in total embarrassment when he desperately tried to shoehorn a joke in at the very end.
As Ms Reid brought the interview to a close, Cllr Quinn interrupted her saying: “I hope you recycled all those Prosecco bottles.”
When he was asked to explain what he meant, he made reference to her attending an awards ceremony early in the week and added: “You stayed up ‘til three o’clock drinking Prosecco. I hope you recycled all those bottles.”
The uncomfortable exchange ended with Ms Reid replying: “I wasn’t drinking Prosecco, but thank you very much.”
Using humour in a media interview is fraught with danger, so making a joke at the expense of the presenter or journalists is really not a good idea.
The Prosecco joke also fell flat because the interview had all but ended and Cllr Quinn had to talk over Ms Reid to force it into the new item. This meant she did not hear it properly at first which only added to the awkwardness of the situation.
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