Mavis Nicholson Interview

The day after The Naked Civil Servant was shown to the public I was interviewed by Mavis Nicholson, the darling of afternoon television. I had been looked over beforehand so the event did not come as a great surprise, nor did Mrs. Nicholson. . . I regarded my meeting with Mrs. Nicholson before the public interview as an opportunity to set her mind at rest. It is always the interviewer who has more to lose than the interviewee. The interrogator, . . is the employee of a vast corporation with a carefully guarded public image and, if by some awful chance something treasonable or blasphemous is said, he may be held responsible.

Our interview turned out to be one of the best I have ever had and the highest point of it came when by mistake I allowed the word 'camp' to fall from my lips. 'Do you think your little friends will understand the word?' I asked, nodding towards the world beyond the camera. Mrs. Nicholson leaned forward to give the lens a searching look. 'I should think so,' she said in a slightly cynical voice.

In my first interview on Late Night Lineup, I had only wanted my replies to be heard, understood and, by some miracle believed. By the time of this second program was promised I wanted more than that. I wished to add what I am to what I said. To some extent I desired to have the situation on my own terms. Mrs. Nicholson never tried to prevent this from happening, indeed she aided and abetted me.