The greatest interviewer of them all

Among the non-stop coverage of the death of Her Majesty and the ascension of King Charles III, the sad loss of another "national treasure" has largely been overlooked.

Mavis Nicholson (for it is she) was the doyenne of daytime telly, before it went all tabloid and wall-to-wall antiques/makeovers/gawking at "dream homes" and so on; the woman whose amicable chit-chats with just about everyone who was anyone hooked the nation. Her voice was gently hypnotic, the twinkle in her eye was entrancing, and her sense of humour was legendary - she even appeared in French and Saunders' peerless piss-take of Silence of the Lambs!

From an article by Carolyn Hitt on WalesOnline in 2016:

The first female chat-show host in the history of British television was a middle-aged woman from Briton Ferry.

Mavis Nicholson talked her way into this ground-breaking role and enjoyed a 25-year career interviewing some of the biggest stars in the world – from David Bowie to Elizabeth Taylor... Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall - it didn’t matter how major the celebrity and how many times they had played the interview game before, Mavis got something from them that no-else could...

Direct but never combative, probing but never prurient, Mavis provided a twice weekly master class in the art of the long-form interview. It’s a lost art now. It may survive on radio but it’s gone on television. On the small screen the personality of the host is considered more important than his guests – and it usually is “his” rather than her.

Mavis’s good friend Maureen Lipman placed her in the context of her male interviewer peers: "It would be interesting to watch Parky, Wogan, Frost and Mave at work. I know who’d come out best. Because there was a Frost-Nixon moment in every one of Mave’s interviews.”

...Her approach married thorough research with the courage to go off script if the occasion demanded it. Indeed Mavis resisted pre-prepared lists of questions.

"Once I was in that studio there was only one person alive in the world and that was the guest. I wanted to be concentrating on what they were saying,” she explained.

"Something they said would lead you to another question that perhaps you hadn’t thought of beforehand. I’d always carefully read researchers’ notes, always had meetings with people and listen to all points of view and I’d read the guests’ books or go to see the play/film they were in and all that sort of thing.

"The homework was always done jointly but then I said I had to be left alone because if I was going to find out anything new about the guest it would come from the spontaneity of the studio and the conversation we would be having together. And when a conversation is good, you’re so engrossed in it, it’s like a blanket going round you both."

Here she is, "throwing a blanket around" David Bowie, and coaxing some quite candid conversation out of him:

Mavis Nicholson interviews David Bowie

...Dame Barbara Cartland talks about sex:

Mavis Nicholson interviews Barbara Cartland

...even she is outshone by Quentin Crisp, however:

Mavis Nicholson interviews Quentin Crisp

A truly great broadcaster.

RIP, Mavis Nicholson (nee Mainwaring, 19th October 1930 – 9th September 2022)