![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/9ab9\/live\/ece09b60-8970-11ef-b39e-cf9068ab5e0b.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nAlex Salmond loved creating headlines. He would be disappointed if he gave an interview that was not sufficiently interesting to make the news.<\/p>\n
As a young radio journalist, I was sent to see him at a business breakfast event where at that time he was demanding the UK join the single European currency.<\/p>\n
When I suggested this was not new, that he\u2019d said it many times before, he said: \u201cYes but I\u2019m saying it more forcefully now because the case is more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anything to make his contribution count.<\/p>\n
Spending time in his company could easily make you late. He tended not to limit interview duration and enjoyed further conversation, debate and showing off a bit after the microphones were off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I can remember interviewing him in his early days as first minister at his official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
The interview was over and I needed to go – but he wanted to show me a collection of silverware that had been found in a cupboard, and share something of its history.<\/p>\n
While he could be charming and entertaining and always offered a sharp analysis of the politics of the day, there was also a less pleasant side to his character.<\/p>\n
I would wince when sometimes he would show impatience and irritation towards his staff. He could be very demanding of them.<\/p>\n
I can also remember bringing a senior BBC editor from the newsroom in London to see him, and was astonished when he asked my colleague if he was on a colonial visit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He had a love\/hate relationship with the BBC. He loved when he was offered a prestigious spot on a network show like Question Time, especially when his political career was in decline.<\/p>\n At other times, he would rage against output he did not like.<\/p>\n He was not happy that I interviewed, anonymously, one of the women who had accused him of sexual offences in court, after he had been acquitted of all charges.<\/p>\n It was not an attempt to re-try the case but a response to his claims of a political conspiracy. I am not sure he forgave me for that.<\/p>\n I travelled with him to Europe, the United States and China. I remember him turning up uncharacteristically early at the Forbidden City in Beijing to meet China\u2019s vice-premier and finding himself locked out.<\/p>\n It would have made powerful TV footage but I don\u2019t think we got it on camera. He thought we had captured this embarrassing moment and gave me a private briefing and a couple of scoops in the hope I wouldn\u2019t use it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex Salmond lived and breathed politics and he seemed completely lost when he was ejected from parliament in 2017.<\/p>\n I bumped into him in Edinburgh soon after and we shared a taxi to Waverley station. Naturally we talked politics and when it came time to part he just kept the conversation going.<\/p>\n In recent years, we talked far less. He refused to take part in a podcast series I made about Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s time in office<\/a> – which would obviously have included the spectacular rift between them.<\/p>\n That was not like him. In all my previous experience, he rarely missed a media opportunity.<\/p>\n Better in his view to get out there and make his case rather than shy away and let others set the narrative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/5b70\/live\/1ebd4080-896b-11ef-b39e-cf9068ab5e0b.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n