My Toughest Ever Interview

Sir Trevor McDonald on the challenge of talking to the bereaved parents of murdered 24-year-old Alice Ruggles…

- Ian MacEwan

NEW CRIME

An Hour to Catch a Killer with Trevor McDonald

THURSDAY / ITV / 9.00PM

From meeting Death Row inmates and Mafia members to being with Nelson Mandela after his release from prison, Sir Trevor McDonald has conducted some challenging interviews over his long and distinguished broadcasting career. But the conversation he had with two bereaved parents for ITV’s An Hour to Catch a Killer was, he says, one of the most difficult he’s undertaken in front of a camera.

The true-crime documentary follows the Northumbria police investigation into the murder of 24-year-old Alice Ruggles, who was stabbed to death at her Gateshead home by her ex-boyfriend, the 26 year-old soldier Trimaan ‘Harry’ Dhillon, in October last year.

The programme focuses on the so-called ‘golden hour’ after a crime is reported, which can make or break the case. But it also reflects on the fallout from this terrible crime, and sees Sir Trevor visiting Alice’s grave with her parents Clive and Sue, and asking them how they’ve coped since their daughter’s death.

TV Times sat down with Sir Trevor, 78, to turn the tables on one of TVs most eloquent, intrepid and well-mannered interviewers…

What’s the premise of An hour to catch a killer?

It’s something that I’d never heard of before, but is well known in the science of homicide investigations – that what you do in that first hour could determine whether the case works out well or not.