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We have largely stayed clear of looking at the interviews produced by our politicians during the general election campaign. But now that we have cast our votes and the campaigning has finished, we can say that it was the media training gift that just kept on giving.

Hopefully, you will have already seen our compilation of the worst interviews of 2019. But what about those spokespeople who delivered strong media performance in the past year?

We seem to say it every year, but the past 12 months has produced plenty of terrible media interviews. In 2019, this media training blog has included examples of spokespeople storming out of interviews, criticising questions, saying things which make a company crisis worse and even cameras being head-butted.

We are sometimes asked on our media training courses whether interview requests should ever be turned down. The answer, perhaps not surprisingly considering what we do, is that these bids should almost always be accepted.

With yet another general election on the horizon, you might have expected us to feature an interview given by a politician in today's media training blog. They are certainly filling the airwaves and there have already been some less than impressive performances.

Live v pre-recorded: What is the best interview format? Instinctively the majority of spokespeople, given the choice, would always opt for a pre-recorded interview over a live one. But does that mean spokespeople should always opt for pre-recorded interviews?

Here are eight reasons why your spokesperson is not being quoted in the media.

Can you ‘guarantee’ that what has gone wrong won’t happen again in the future.

It was always likely to be a challenging interview. The Iceland supermarket chain had already received some negative media coverage after it emerged it had removed its labelling from some of its own-brand goods rather than remove palm oil from its entire range. So when managing director Richard Walker appeared on BBC Breakfast on Saturday to discuss the story he would surely have expected some tough questions. So how did he do?

Just when I began to wonder what I was going to write about today I stumbled across a truly calamitous media interview. In fact such was the awkward nature of the interview that it instantly brought back memories of the infamous exchange between Jeremy Paxman and Michael Howard.

People want to hear stories about other people, not policies, protocols and strategies. They want to know what your announcement means for real people in real life situations. Often the strongest examples, the ones which really stimulate emotions in the audience and persuade them to give money, take action, support an idea or buy a product, are those which are personal to the spokesperson.

It is often assumed the CEO or chief executive will front a crisis media management situation. But, although they should be visible, that does not mean they have to be the spokesperson. So if it doesn’t have to be the boss, who should you turn to when you have to deal with bad news? We have identified eight points you should consider when choosing your crisis spokesperson.

It’s no great secret that the key to emerging from a media interview successfully is to prepare properly. We’re pretty certain you know the importance of ensuring your spokesperson is aware of the messages, knows who the audience is and is prepared for the negative questions. But are you missing something? What could you do to enhance this preparation and ensure your spokesperson is in the best possible position for interviews?

It is not so much a matter of ‘if’ a crisis hits your organisation as ‘when’. Our 14 point checklist will help you get that preparation right and think about what you need to do when crisis strikes.

Having a CEO refuse media training is a nightmare scenario for PR and comms officers. Here are some of the reasons given by CEOs for not having media training and how you can overcome them.

Every organisation, big or small, needs spokespeople who can promote its achievements and defend its reputation in a crisis.

Here’s a question which comes up regularly on our media training courses - should you ever go ‘off the record’ with a reporter?

When an organisation finds itself in a crisis you can almost guarantee that the chief executive or company chairman will be thrust in front of the media glare as the spokesperson.