Робин Дэй: «Гранд-инквизитор» британского телевидения

British broadcaster
the broadcaster

Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was an English political journalist and television and radio broadcaster. Day's obituary in The Guardian by Dick Taverne stated that he was "the most outstanding television journalist of his generation. He transformed the television interview, changed the relationship between politicians and television, and strove to assert balance and rationality into the medium's treatment of current affairs".

Day was born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, the youngest of four children briefly attended the Crypt School, Gloucester, and later Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight. During World War II he received a commission into the British Army's Royal Artillery, with which he served from 1943. He was deployed to East Africa and saw little action. He was discharged from the British Army in 1947 with the rank of Lieutenant, and went up to St Edmund Hall, Oxford to read law. Whilst at Oxford University he was elected president of the Oxford Union debating society, and also took part in a debating tour of the United States of America, run by the English Speaking Union.

Day spent almost his entire working life in journalism. He rose to prominence on the new Independent Television News (ITN) from 1955. According to Dick Taverne, Day first came to notice by interviewing Sir Kenneth Clark, then chairman of the regulator Independent Television Authority. The ITA had proposed to cut ITN's broadcasting hours and finances. His direct, non deferential approach was then entirely new. He became known in British broadcasting as "the Grand Inquisitor" for his abrasive interviewing of politicians, a style out of keeping with the British media's habitual deference to authority in the early days of his career. In October 1982, during a Newsnight interview with the Conservative Secretary of State for Defence John Nott, pursuing cuts in defence expenditure, in particular Royal Navy, Day posed the question: "Why should the public on this issue believe you, a transient, here today and, if I may say so, gone tomorrow politician rather than a senior officer of many years' experience?" Nott, who had announced he was to retire at the next general election, removed his own microphone and walked off the set. Monty Python's Flying Circus often referred to Day – for example in the 'Eddie Baby' sketch, in which John Cleese turns to the camera and states: "Robin Day's got a hedgehog called Frank". In another sketch, Eric Idle said he was able to return his "Robin Day tie" to Harrods. He was also spoofed (as "Robin Yad") on The Goodies' episode "Saturday Night Grease". Day appeared as himself on an installment of the Morecambe & Wise show, in which he berates Ernie Wise in character. Then Eric Morecambe, acting as a TV presenter, says, "Sadly, we've come to the end of today's 'Friendly Discussion with Robin Day'". He was also frequently lampooned by the satirical TV programme Spitting Image. In this, he would frequently be shown interviewing then prime minister Margaret Thatcher who would always give answers somewhat unrelated to the question. The breathing difficulties which affected him later in life were represented: "My name is Robin (deep breath) Day." His last regular TV work was Robin Day's Book Talk which aired in the early days of BBC News 24 in around 1998. The programme featured interviews and discussions about books, broadly around a political theme. On occasions, it took the form of a one on one interview, while on other occasions it consisted of a panel discussion.

Day's two autobiographies were entitled Day by Day (1975) and Grand Inquisitor (1989).

Day died from heart complications, aged 76, on the evening of 6 August 2000 at the Wellington Hospital in London. A funeral service was held at the chapel of Mortlake Crematorium, where his body was cremated. His ashes were buried in a grave near the south door of the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross, at Whitchurch Canonicorum in the county of Dorset. The grave's memorial stone bears the words: "In loving memory of Sir Robin Day – The Grand Inquisitor".

In 1965, Day married Katherine Ainslie, an Australian law don at St Anne's College, Oxford; the couple had two sons. The marriage was dissolved in 1986. His elder son suffered multiple skull fractures in a childhood fall, and never fully recovered. In the 1980s, Day had a coronary bypass, and he suffered from breathing problems that were often evident when he was on the air. He had always fought against a tendency to put on weight. As an undergraduate, he weighed , and claimed that, in the course of his life, he had succeeded in losing more weight than any other person. The broadcaster Joan Bakewell recalled that while Day was professional when in the office, he was disrespectful towards female newsreaders: "Socially he was a menace. There was no subtlety in his manner: at office parties he would attack head on. 'Do the men you interview fancy you? Do they stare at your legs? Do they stare at your breasts? Do you sleep with many of them?' Whenever he loomed in sight, I made myself scarce".

Day is portrayed by Bertie Carvel in the episode "Marionettes" in season 2 of the Netflix series The Crown.