What to watch
Having refused to take part in a televised debate ahead of the General Election, Prime Minister Theresa May took the arguably riskier decision to face Jeremy Paxman instead. Certainly Paxman didn’t go easy on David Cameron when he was leader of the Conservative Party back in 2015, mauling him about his wealthy friends and getting him to admit that he couldn’t live on a zero-hours contract. Yet, it’s also true that the night’s biggest talking points involved Ed Miliband: the then Labour leader was mocked for announcing, “Hell yes, I am tough enough to be prime minister.”
With that in mind, Mrs May’s campaign strategist Lynton Crosby is probably gambling that even if she does fluff her lines, she’ll still do better than Jeremy Corbyn. But it would be a mistake for the Prime Minister to be too sure of herself – the opposition leader’s vagueness is its own kind of obdurate superpower, able to blunt even the sharpest of questions. It does not matter who wins – Channel 4 and Paxman make a great song-anddance about these interviews but they’re little more than theatre. The only result that matters arrives on June 8. Sarah Hughes