Hardtalk - BBC World News Interview Heaven

Twenty-five minutes of Stephen Sackur and  subject. Stephen is warmly serious, confrontational when he needs to probe deeper, push harder. Yesterday he talked to Christian Purslow  managing director of Liverpool FC from 2009-2010. Financial takeovers, a court case, should English football clubs be owned be foreign investors? Accountablity, do the owner give enough back to their loyal fans, do they care or is it all about money? The right questions, expertly answered by the right person. Other recent programmes; shortly after Mandela died a repeat of the interview with Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia's president and a founder of the African National Congress. Where was Zambia heading, why was progress so slow.?

Shortly before Christmas we listened to Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh and Head of the Scottish Episcopal Church discuss his recent autobiography Leaving Alexandria and why he is a patron of LGBT Scotland. The most moving part for me was when Richard remembered as a  fervent teenager in an English seminary writing to his father that he must go to church and pray. Richard was close to tears remembering that his father had to read his son's juvenile bossiness before leaving the house to work a shift at his horrible factory. Hardtalk always preserves the intelligence and dignity of the person and handles the topic with respect. I learn a lot from it.

After 6am English news hits a watershed. The BBC powers that be assume we are all incurably slow-witted. The health service, education, welfare, same old, same old always at a snail's pace. Assume reality is worse then if it jumps up and smacks you in the gob it may hurt less.

Best to watch CBBC it covers the essentials. Or switch on simply for the feelgood animal story at the end of the six o'clock news. Did you watch Foxy, the abandoned starving cub with a stump for a tail? Would he make it?. The rescue dog on the farm with the small voluntary sanctuary taught it to be an animal, now they frolic inseparably from morn till night. We also saw Branston Prickle the blind hedgehog. Aww, I love animals!

Hardtalk is on BBC1 Monday to Friday at 4.30am and is available on catch-up.