The audience at “An evening with Kirsty Wark” saw a clip from early in her career, pre-Newsnight, when, thanks to thorough research, she caused then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to stumble. “I love the prep for an interview – it’s so important,” she said.
Wark reckoned she went too far with a guest only once, interviewing then Scottish first Minister Alex Salmond in 2007 about the possible release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. “The BBC apologised and said I’d been rude and abusive. I was probably too forceful,“ she said. “But if I’d been a man they wouldn’t have said that.”
Noting that her hair had turned grey while presenting Newsnight, she added: “Men are a ‘silver haired fox’ yet women are viewed as some medieval witch. It’s totally unfair.”
The anchor of BBC Two’s news and current affairs programme joined BBC Radio Scotland in 1976 as a graduate researcher. Talking to ex-BBC North West political editor Jim Hancock at the RTS event, Wark revealed that she turned down a permanent role at Radio 4’s World at One because she didn’t want to leave Scotland and move to London full time. “The commute is a pain in the arse but it’s worth it,” she said.
Wark has also worked on lighter fare, appearing on BBC One’s Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, which she was determined to win. “I was distracted because I kept thinking how Benghazi was under attack and here I was working on a baked Alaska,” she recalled.
She also remembered shouting at Pete Doherty when the musician appeared ready to walk out of an interview. “Come back here. The BBC has paid for three cameramen for this,” she said. Doherty did the interview.