interview

Back at the start of term, we did a bit of media workshopping. One of the products was that lots of PGCE English students were sitting around, with ten minutes to interview someone and another ten to write it up. I only got around to seeing mine today...

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"A pen clutched tight to his chest, Peter Huey has the look of a serious-yet-friendly pseudo-intellectual. We meet in the cold and unorthodox setting of a dated lecture theatre in the University of Ulster. He is relaxed, his eyes closed in thought, when asked about his daily newspaper habits. “The danger,” he says, is when we “digest one point of view.” It is obvious Peter has thought about this a lot. He is one of those younger-generation Times readers that dare ask: “Who owns this newspaper?” – going on to talk about the control media has on perspective.

“We hope what they’re saying is true,” he says, with a slightly dubious raised eyebrow. For a more reliable publication – or rather, to avoid thinking, Peter continues talking about the magazines that regularly gather dust on his coffee table. It seems Total Film and Empire magazine are “easier to digest” and National Geographic captures his love of photography – “I’m at that point now where I just try and get through it,” he says with a laugh.

Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders and Raging Bulls is “what I’m really interested in.” Was it the “shock culture, or culture shock” of these films that changed society, he asks.

On his television tastes, he feels guilty – “You can spend twenty four weeks watching a drama series, or watch it in one.” Is this related to the kind of lazy, instant-gratification-loving culture we’re now in, I ask. “I could talk forever about this,” he says before leaning back mysteriously, and saying nothing. "

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Not really sure what that says about me, to be honest!