HARDtalk is educational

Recently, the BBC has made it's news channel, BBC News 24, available online. So, I've been tuning in to the news most of the time. I always need some noise in the background to work. Usually, I would play a movie or DVD but with this, I won't need to anymore.

One very educational programme that the channel has is HARDtalk. It is a half hour programme of non-stop hard talking. It is a programme where they interview an important figure of some kind. The show's host, Stephen Sackur, would just ask a few hard questions and keep pushing the guest into a corner. The idea is to get the guest to put their points across in the clearest manner.

It is very interesting as it is obvious that the host's only task is to provoke. Stephen often doesn't allow the guest to complete their statements and cuts in with a follow up question. Sometimes, you can see that the guest gets pushed to the edge while other times, the guest handles it really well. Either way, I'm glad that the programme is only 30 mins because if it is any longer, it's quite possible for the guest to beat Stephen up. Often, the show brings out the clearest answers to issues because they ask the hardest questions.

Another thing that I've noticed about the channel is that it keeps repeating the same half dozen headlines again and again throughout the day. So, after listening to the channel for a couple of hours, it becomes quite obvious what's important to know for the day. All in all, I like the channel. I can now catch the news any time of the day, and not just at 1pm, 6pm or 10pm.

UPDATE@2000+1: The channel even has a sense of humour!