She was called upon last week to return to the subject, when the Media Society held its ­annual gala dinner in Paxman’s honour.

 

It remains one of the fascinations about Newsnight’s long serving anchor that while he is a household name and a byword for the ruthless interview, his presence on television suggests there’s more about him than the public is ever likely to grasp. Whether he’s on camera or in print, there’s not always a clear boundary between theatre and reality. Is he being serious?

 

Explaining Paxman’s public persona fell to a group of insiders, assembled by the Media Society.

It was an event that balanced professional ­admiration with an opportunity to chuck a few darts at a figure who was – by his own admission – enduring ‘a very embarrassing and a very odd evening’.

 

There was a filmed tribute from the PM, who managed a reasonable joke about Paxman’s ‘feared’ style of questioning... on University Challenge’. There was a Rory Bremner impersonation and Michael Howard, whose ­refusal 12 times to ­answer Paxman’s question about the prison service has gone down in broadcast legend. The former Tory leader noted the dinner was taking place on St George’s Day and made obligatory reference to Jeremy the political dragon ­slayer.

 

But it was from within the BBC that some of the best lines came. Helen Boaden, director of news, saluted Paxo’s instinct for the right question at the right ­moment and even indulged in appreciation of his status as a sex symbol (although unlike some women she had not sent him a packet of M&S ­underpants). She had seen the secret side of ‘a very decent man’ of almost old fashioned dimensions. As Paxman squirmed she added, that he was a ‘world class curmudgeon’ and a ‘grumpy old sod’. 

 

Martha Kearney, now of ­Radio 4, admitted she had been the butt of ‘far too many’ Paxo jokes of the dumb blonde variety but admired his daring as a questioner and the fearlessness with which he was prepared to ‘take on the establishment whether ‘at Westminster or within the BBC itself.’

 

Paxman endured the praise and the teasing and gave a thoughtful speech in which he said feared for the health of media facing the effects of the ‘horrible crisis we are going through’. Everywhere newspapers and tv programmes (Newsnight included) were facing cuts. But his career had been ‘wonderful’ and he had shared it with clever, talented and, ­importantly, amusing people. For him, the role of the media to investigate and to hold those in power to account was as important as it had ever been.   

 

Yes, yes, all very noble, but what about the killer question. I bravely asked him – so, what is Martha Kearney really like?

 

The smile, the eyebrow, the wry expression from 20 years of Newsnight… ‘Adorable,’ he said.

 

 

Andrew Harvey