Kirsty Wark reflects on 30 years at Newsnight and calls for a female BBC Director General

"That was a defining moment, there's no doubt about that," Wark exclusively told RadioTimes.com. "I worked in a collaborative way with producers and we gamed that interview.

"And actually, to this day, one of the things I like best is gaming interviews beforehand, where everybody's chucking ideas in, and then you sort of get a structure in your head."

"I know the Thatcher interview was very important in that regard. It was a critical moment in my career."

Now, 35 years on, she joins the BAFTA Fellowship hall of fame – an award that has been presented to the likes of Sir David Attenborough, Meera Syal and more recently, Baroness Floella Benjamin.

Over the course of her three decades on Newsnight, Wark has interviewed prime ministers, grilled those in power and propelled herself to being one of the leading figures in political broadcasting.

Following the announcement of her exit in 2023, it was confirmed that the originally 45-minute programme would be cut to 30 minutes, but her decision to step away wasn't down to the editorial direction of the programme and rather, all to do with timing.

"I always said I'd go at the election," she told press including RadioTimes.com. "There has to be a pipeline. Thank goodness the election was before the summer, I could've still been doing it last November and I'd said I was ready to go."

But while she no longer presents the show, she still keeps an eye on the goings on and praised the current team's latest work.

She said: "I watch the same way I used to watch it, which is often in the morning. And my assessment is that they get great interviews and good analysis and good American guests at the moment."

And as the BBC continues to moves with the changing media landscape, there is something Wark is keen to see change too.

"I want to see a female DG [director general] very soon," she added. "I'm not saying Tim [Davie] go now, but I'm just saying I think that it's time for women to be in senior positions."

Pressed on why she thinks there hasn't been a female director general of the BBC, Wark explained: "The BBC [has] technology, iPlayer, BBC Audio – all sorts of things – and I would really to see a woman take hold of that."

She continued: "I actually think we want somebody who is very open to conversations all the time and it's hard to do because there are so many people in the BBC. I think Tim has done a really good job but I just feel, why not? Why not a woman?"

Wark was keen to remain tight-lipped on who she'd like to see in that position, but was sure to praise all the trailblazing women who have worked their way to the top in the BBC, which was a stark different to what she encountered when she first started out in journalism.

"There weren't that many women in this territory and television," Wark told RadioTimes.com. "If I was to have someone, not that I knew it at the time, who was a real inspiration when I was a young teenager there used to be this programme called Late Night Line-Up."

Wark continued: "Joan Bakewell was on it, smoking. I said, 'Oh I quite like that'. She did politics and she did the arts and that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to do all those different things."

Nowadays, Wark doesn't think there is "an issue at all" with women with seniority in journalism, adding: "I think we've got more flexible working and we've got women in senior positions."

"But I definitely would love to see, as I said, a woman in the top position at the BBC."

The BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises takes place on Sunday 11th May and will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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