The public's view of reporters often seems to be coloured by the reporters of fiction. This impression comes from films and TV where reporters are played as unpleasant in order to build the moral upright-ness of the hero. Even when the reporter is one of the main characters, there is often more drama in making them unsympathetic. This almost always means that the reporter is seen as someone who is either self-obsessed or rude and overbearing. Michael Elphick, for instance, starred in the TV series Harry as the eponymous freelance reporter who seems to have no real redeeming features at all. John Gordon Sinclair starred as Nelson in Nelson’s Column — playing a reporter whose selfishness and ambition were the keys to the comedy, whilst reporters in Drop the Dead Donkey and Hot Metal were all deeply flawed human beings. Since on their first contract with the media, the interviewee may also, as Keeble points out, feel intimidated by this 'awesome and seemingly powerful institution, the press, so capable of destroying reputations’ they are often pleasantly surprised. Nearly all reporters are (or can be) polite, even charming, human beings — at least for the length of the interview. T he best quickly relax their subjects and soon make them feel able to confide their secrets.