Ms Maitlis, who was made the lead presenter earlier this year, confessed in May 2016 that she felt “liberated” when the TV legend left the show two years before. While Mr Paxman was her “broadcasting hero”, she said the ethos during his years as the main presenter was one of toughness. In contrast, Ms Maitlis said she prefers a more gentle style of interview and insisted she yields better results from it.

She told the Telegraph: “We never played the game of who can ask the questions 15 times, but there was a sense of ‘How tough can you be?’

“I have learnt than in some of my best interviews I was lovely, but they still yielded extraordinary moments.”

She added: “Jeremy’s style was brilliant and inimitable, but that was the key word.

“I am now really cautious never to ask a question that sounds rude or aggressive or stupid to me. I like to step back, it’s all about listening.”

READ MORE: BBC’s Emily Maitlis vowed to end Paxman-era ‘aggression’ on Newsnight

An interview which exemplified Mr Paxman’s unique style of interview was an infamous exchange with Michael Howard in 1997.

The BBC legend asked the then-Home Secretary: “Did you threaten to overrule him?” over a dozen times.

However, when Mr Paxman left, Ms Maitlis began to find her own voice and way of doing things.

She insisted that it wasn’t Mr Paxman personally that had prevented her from feeling liberated before, but the expectations placed upon his fellow presenters.

She explained: “It wasn’t to do with him, but there were so many assumptions of what a Paxman-era interview should be like and once that had gone, I felt more in control.”

Ms Maitlis described her own interview approach as “flirtation, seduction and betrayal”, meaning that she starts friendly, warms them up and then hits them with a difficult question.

Her words reignited a debate around interview styles when the article was published back in 2016.

Other BBC giants like Radio 4’s John Humphrey’s were under scrutiny amid claims they interrupted their guests too much.

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Justin Webb, who co-presented the Today Programme with Mr Humphrys actually agreed with Ms Maitlis that the “gotcha” style of interview honed by Mr Paxman often “generated more heat than light.”

He told the Telegraph in 2016: “Its day has passed. We’ve moved on and indeed I think a young person starting out now who employed that style would not be as successful.

“Simply put, the audience got bored with it.”

Another top BBC current affairs presenter, Andrew Marr, added that he “never believed” that treating a politician like a “scoundrel” or a “liar” was the right way to go about interviewing them.

Ms Maitlis had worked at the BBC for five years when she joined the Newsnight team in 2006.

She told the Independent at the time that whenever she bumped into Mr Paxman at Newsnight she always seemed to be dropping bags or dressed frivolously for a party.

However, former employees at Newsnight revealed that Mr Paxman was actually already a fan of Ms Maitlis, even before she joined the team.

One told The Guardian: “The joke on the programme was that when Paxman was presenting Newsnight no one was allowed to disturb him for half an hour while she was on the air.

“You can’t disturb Paxman because Maitlis is on BBC London.”

After Mr Paxman left Newsnight, Ms Maitlis may have felt “liberated” but she was still overlooked for the top job, as the corporation chose to promote Evan Davis instead.

She spoke of her irritation at being ignored, saying: “One thing I have learnt is that men have it in their genes to ask for things and women don’t.”

However, Mr Davis himself moved on in 2018, leaving an opening for Ms Maitlis to finally step into the main presenter role.

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