Kirsty Wark on leaving Newsnight and her new role presenting Front Row

Three former prime ministers – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron – paid tribute to the presenter, although it was the crew’s cheers that had her reaching for her hanky.

So, after 30 years of fronting the programme, you’d guess it would be high time for a rest, a chance to put her feet up, enjoy the summer and think about finishing her third, already overdue, novel? It appears not.

"My publisher is being very good and understanding, but I’m desperate to get back into it," says Wark, on the phone from Heathrow’s departure lounge in the middle of another packed day. "I will have time when everything’s calmed down. It’s just been a confluence of events."

Such events include signing up for new presenting duties on Radio 4. As well as continuing to host the long-running interview show The Reunion, Wark will present the flagship arts programme Front Row from her home city of Glasgow once a week. Was this always the plan?

"When I was asked to do Front Row, I thought it would start around November, after the election," she explains. "Although I hoped that would come sooner rather than later. Then Rishi Sunak answered my prayers and here we are."

Will Wark miss her Newsnight gig? "I will continue to watch because I care, but it’s lovely watching it and thinking, I’m really enjoying this and now I’m going to my bed without having to commute.

"It’s not having to think what to do when I wake up in the morning and the train to London is cancelled, and then running to catch a flight to London. I’ll not miss that one bit."

Having presented BBC Two’s The Late Show in the early 1990s and later Newsnight Review, a broad cultural brief is nothing new for Wark. Her enthusiasm is palpable for the prospect of showcasing everything from theatre to poetry, and particularly bringing live performance into the studio.

Her first Front Row (Tuesday 13 August) comes from the Edinburgh Festival, where she interviews Rose Matafeo, Nish Kumar and Miriam Margolyes.

Despite years with just camera crew and studio managers for company, she has no nerves. "The audience brings an energy, especially when there’s live performance. I’m hoping we’ll be able to do a lot of that."

Despite such a tailor-made gig for Wark, going to work on her doorstep after years of rushing for the Caledonian Sleeper train home before the Newsnight credits had fully rolled, she’s intent on sharing the cultural love between all the nations and regions.

"It’s important we reflect what’s happening in all parts of the UK. There’s something distinctive about the arts in Scotland, but it’s the same in Liverpool, Newcastle, you name it… and of course, the greatest art is about making the local universal."

What is she most looking forward to? "I’m very nosy. I like talking to directors, like Steven Soderbergh. Making a film is an extraordinary feat of endurance, and I’m full of admiration for people who are good at it and not monsters."

Meanwhile, there’s The Reunion, in which individuals discuss a chapter in recent history of which they were all part. Wark has hosted since 2020 and has already recorded the first in the new season, a timely episode that brings together key members of the Labour Party tasked with forming a new government in 1997.

"What’s different about that period is that they’d been planning so heavily for years," she says about guests that include former home secretary Jack Straw, Tony Blair’s chief of staff Jonathan Powell and his longtime adviser and confidante Anji Hunter. "They’d been meticulously thinking about what they had to achieve, and I think that’s fascinating. It was exciting for them, and exciting for us as well."

Other editions in the new run include a look back at the beginning of the Paralympics, and a trip to Germany to reflect on the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Wark agrees there’s something particularly revealing, and often moving, about giving people a chance to explain themselves and share their part in past events – not that she has ever been a fan of trying to catch out politicians, even those in the current eye of a storm.

She told The Times on her departure from Newsnight that she finds many political interviews too aggressive; her own mantra is to be "always sceptical, never cynical". She reflects now, "Many politicians I’ve met are incredibly hard-working and committed."

She extends her sympathy particularly to the "absolute nightmare" for female politicians who have suffered well-documented trials and attacks by social media and worse, saying: "The problem with a pile-on, it’s so dangerous. Look what happened in Southport when a fictitious piece of information went out. The whole idea of a pile-on is so scary."

She clearly has no such qualms for herself. Barely on social media and unrufflable in person, it’s no surprise when Wark says she finds viewers treat her with respect: "I don’t have people coming up in my face. If it did happen, I’d step aside. I’m not naive about a level of scrutiny, but it’s a job, no more or less than other jobs. Some stars fly too close to the sun and think they can behave in any way they want. I’m a journalist doing my work.”

Wark’s longtime cornerstone of that work, Newsnight, recently saw a drastic cut in its budget and production staff numbers, and its running time shortened to 30 minutes.

She remains proud of the show and, despite the wealth of competition that has arrived since its 1980 debut, convinced of its value: "It came out all guns blazing with the election. Now we have the US election, Ukraine still a major thing and war in Gaza. There is plenty to talk about.

"Nothing stands still. Would I wish for the cuts not to happen? Of course, but lots of other shows are about to take a hit as well. That’s the nature of changing viewing habits. We would lose BBC news and current affairs and politics at our peril."

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