Emily Maitlis

Emily Maitlis of The News Agents podcast and Krishnan Guru-Murphy will present the election special. They will be joined throughout the night by a range of guests, including Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, the hosts of The Rest is Politics podcast.

Clare Balding will be crunching the numbers as the data arrives, while Cathy Newman will be reporting from the campaign headquarters for both Labour and the Conservatives. Channel 4 News’s political editor Gary Gibbon will also be present to provide analysis.

Tom Walker’s inspiration for the character, essentially a politically charged Alan Partridge, was his assumption that newsreaders must be frustrated having to stick so rigidly and impartially to the agenda. Especially when covering the dire state of modern politics.

I’m not saying that the likes of Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Andrew Marr dreamed of exorcising their frustration by going off on one of Pie’s shouty and sweary monologues, but they did all leave for less impartial pastures.

Gillian Anderson will star as Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis who, in 2019, interviewed Prince Andrew on the programme about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Rufus Sewell will play Prince Andrew in the appearance which would go onto make headlines around the world.

In a clear statement of intent, a recording of Maitlis’s headline-making MacTaggart Lecture, in which she decried the BBC’s version of “impartiality”, was published under the title before the launch proper.

In other words, this time it’s partial. Some were sceptical about the appetite listeners would have for the opinions of these erstwhile public service ­journalists but The News Agents has taken up permanent residence around the top of the charts, alongside that other opinionated podcast, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s The Rest Is Politics.

When BBC journalists Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis announced they were following in the footsteps of Andrew Marr to join LBC and Classic FM owner Global and make a podcast, it left many people asking why – and wondering whether we have reached “peak podcast”. 

According to the most recent figures from Enders Analysis, podcast listening has almost doubled over the past four years – in an average week, just over 17% of the UK population listen to a podcast.  

It was around this time 21 years ago that I first penned a letter to the then-Newsnight editor, Sian Kevill, begging her to consider my application for a work placement. Back then, I saw Newsnight as the brand that represented the highest form of accountability and one that could deliver change.