In arts and culture programming Melvyn Bragg occupies a pre-eminent position, owning, producing and presenting the South Bank Show. ITV, often regarded as being philistine in outlook, wisely gives Bragg executive powers and the sometime novelist is never one to fail to exercise his judgement. Bragg uses his late night-Sunday hour to get under the skin of some of the foremost practitioners in kunst und kultur.

The genius of Bragg’s casual interviewing technique, combined with lazily researched facts and footage incoherently cobbled together, reached a recent zenith in the interview with revitalised rock legend Iggy Pop. Within minutes, Mervyn said how his hair was often off its face on H. Soon the infamous Bragg bust began to talk too, explaining how it was addicted to Quaaludes from 1974-76 inclusive. Iggy could only reply: “I wanna be YOUR dog – search and destroy man.” During later passages with Iggmond, Marvin Clagg, reapplying the dictums of Stanislavsky, could be seen riding around on his racer, trying to get copies of the A-Team magazine and some Murdoch and Hannibal masks from Miami thrift shops down the front of his Yvonne St. Laurence shirt. He was later arrested for ABH (Actual Bouffant Hair).

Rightly so perhaps Bragg never once chose to explore a little into Iggy’s own alienation and the symptoms of the wider 70s nihilist subcultures. Packed full of clichés and convenient judgements, this (repeated) South Thanks Show doc was not a completely uninteresting exercise in normalising a former musical trailblazer/pariah – depending on which side of the boardroom table your sitting on – who now lends his musical signature of rockist angst to the sale of Caribbean cruises. Pop, who is still dragging his twisted physicality around the stage to ensure a more comfortable old age and some impressive dental work, accordingly played the supplicant interviewee, smiling and being so candid that very little of interest was revealed. Viewers were kept on delicious tenterhooks for the next Pop profile.

After each show, sources say Brag always goes into the vacuum of his office for a debriefing with the bust. The Highbury season ticket-holder will sometimes try to outwit the alabaster statue on contentious points by employing Cumbrian vernacular, which regular viewers will know cuts seamlessly into his workaday brogue. Such a professional approach is just one reason why the South Bank show remains a formidable analytical vehicle. The nation’s intellect is safe in his hands.