One of the seven, Gani Kasymov, hurled a vase of flowers at a television interviewer who had compared his unexpected decision to run to that of an unpredictable drunk.

ECONOMIST: Kazakhstan

General Mamdouh Shaheen, a member of the 24-man ruling army council, told a television interviewer that at least until presidential elections are held next summer the army will retain the right to hire and fire governments.

ECONOMIST: Egypt��s election

Mr Howard forced his director of prisons, Derek Lewis, to resign, while declining to accept much in the way of responsibility himself, famously refusing to answer a question put 14 times by a television interviewer suggesting he had made Mr Lewis a scapegoat.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

Of course, she told a disbelieving interviewer on television.

ECONOMIST: Queen Modjadji

It is also like a wrestling match, but now verbal, in which the television interviewer tries to draw out of the wrestler more than a few mumbled stock phrases, while the wrestler lamely resists, clearly stalling until the allotted time runs out.

FORBES: Of Sumo and Japanese Government Finances

Russert had appeared as an unlikely icon for television news, with his cherubic face and dimpled chin, but he was a prolific interviewer and tireless journalist, one with an intimidating breadth of political knowledge and insight.

CNN: NBC remembers Russert on first 'Meet the Press' since his death

In spite of some bruising encounters during his time as home secretary in the last Conservative government, most notably when he evaded, despite fully 14 repetitions, a question put to him by the interviewer, Jeremy Paxman, he is confident and lucid on television.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot