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Since interviewing the former FBI director James Comey, I’ve come to realise that there’s a simple rule for keeping listeners interested
James Comey has been on my mind since I recorded an interview with him last month for my radio programme. The former director of the FBI and avowed Trump adversary spoke with a winning mixture of intelligence, candour, humility and a smattering of spite. Nice work, sir. But there was more to it than that. It’s one thing for an interview to be good; it’s another for it to be easy to edit. My producer, listening in, was purring with satisfaction because it was the easiest edit ever. It didn’t need any editing at all; what we recorded went out exactly as we recorded it. This was as much to do with the length of Comey’s answers as what he was saying. Whatever the optimum length of answers is, our man nailed it.
I listened back, with half a mind to producing a how-to sheet for the perusal of all my future interviewees. His first eight answers varied in length between 21 seconds and one minute 43 seconds. They averaged just over a minute. I wonder if this kind of length is not only perfect for the convenience of overworked producers and the blood pressure of presenters, but also for the comprehension of listeners. You can be the cleverest of clogs but if you bang on for ever, attentions may be lost and your brilliance may elude us. Continue reading...