Transcript
Christiane Amanpour (0:04)
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Amanpour. Here's what's coming up. As a wave of scandals threatens to engulf Britain's best loved institutions, I asked veteran BBC journalist David Dimbleby about the challenges facing the broadcaster and his new documentary, what's the Monarchy For? Then a triumphant return to fiction for Booker Prize winning author Kiran Desai. She tells me about her new novel the Loneliness of Sonia and Sonn and why it took two decades to write. Plus, another startling diatribe from Donald Trump as he plays up his anti immigrant agenda. Hari Srinivasan speaks to democratic state Senator Zainab Mohamed about how the administration's hostile policies are hitting her community.
Christiane Amanpour (1:11)
Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. It's been a year like no other for two of Britain's best known institutions. The BBC, the country's independent public broadcaster, has found its editorial integrity in question and it's been forced to defend its practices on multiple occasions. It lost two of its top executives last month and faced the threat of a multi billion billion lawsuit from President Trump over a misleading edit in a Panorama documentary. The British monarchy too is under greater scrutiny than perhaps ever before. Revelations of former Prince Andrew's relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have badly damaged the royal's reputation. David Dimbleby is a veteran journalist who knows both institutions very well. He spent decades as One of the BBC's best known presenters, covering national events from elections to coronations and as well as as being the face of the flagship political debate show Question Time. Years later, he is still asking the questions Britain's most want answered, like what's the monarchy for? Which is his latest project airing on the BBC now. So, David Dimbleby, welcome to the program.
David Dimbleby (2:22)
Thank you, Christiane.
Christiane Amanpour (2:22)
So you know, you are this institution yourself.
David Dimbleby (2:25)
I'm not an institution.
Christiane Amanpour (2:26)
Well, you kind of are. People like you, I'm more than you are. But you have a father, you have a brother. All of the Dimbleby family has been very, very important in chronicling BR really, over the decades. What was it that made you want to do this particular one? As someone who's actually been covering the royals for all these years now, you say what's the monarchy for?
David Dimbleby (2:47)
It goes back to something the Queen said 30 years ago, which was that all institutions benefit from criticism, including the monarchy and none of them should avoid scrutiny. And that's been my watchword and what made me interested in doing it now, which is 35 years after she made that speech, her annus horribilis as she called it. When everybody was getting divorced and Windsor Castle caught fire, all sorts of hell let loose. The reason for doing it now was I suddenly realized that the BBC had never actually done it. They never. They do the occasional Andrew interview when he's in disgrace, Diana when she's in trouble. You know, they interviewed her. But they've never looked at the monarchy as an institution. I thought I'd been covering events for the monarchy, which is different, but let's just have a look at how the thing works, because, and this is the important point in Scotland and Wales, remember, we're four countries in the uk, In Scotland and Wales, there's now a narrow majority against monarchy and a rising number of young people in this country against monarchy. So it seemed to me a good moment to say, is it working? Is it how it should be?