John Humphrys has recently retired from BBC’s he Today programme after 30 years in the job and has spoken out about the time he was turned down for an interview by the monarch in The Observer. The veteran is renowned for his tough interview technique and ferocious questions and said he would have liked to have interviewed The Queen as she is “unique”.

He has spent three decades grilling high profile politicians on Radio Four.

When Mr Humphrys was recently quizzed on who he wished to interview but never got the chance, he admitted his desire to question the Queen.

He told the Observer: “I’m not a royalist, but, the Queen. She is unique.

“I got invited to one of these private lunches – note, private lunches – three others and me, with Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh.

“And after we’d had the lunch, I did ask her if she would do an interview with me.

“Anyway, I asked her for an interview and I went into a big spiel and said, these are the reasons why you could, you know?

“And she listened to me very patiently and she said: ‘No… And what’s more, Mr Humphrys, if one were ever to do such an interview, it would certainly not be with you’.”

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The presenter of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Jenni Murray, also asked Mr Humphyrs in the Observer, “What’s the most important question that needs to be put to Boris Johnson, and what answer would you expect to get?

“His reply was: “That’s a killer, isn’t it? Curse you, Jenni… How about: “You tell lies routinely. Do you know you’re doing that?” In a sense it would be a pointless question, because he’d say “flhmpthflfhfhhhmph” [posh waffly Johnson-style noise], but then you’d follow up with, you know, “an inverted pyramid of piffle”. And in the process of taking apart his denials, you would get somewhere, I think.”

Mr Humphrys interviewed former Prime Minister David Cameron for his final 8:10 interview on BBC Radio Four Today show.

He began his journalism career in Wales and moved into broadcasting in his twenties.

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He presented the BBC’s Nine O’Clock News before joining Today in 1987.

The Queen is well known for not participating in interviews.

The monarch finds it easier to decline interviews and be spared of any embarrassing questions or answers. She’s talked to journalists in the past about the coronation and allowed film crews to film her for documentaries but generally, she doesn’t speak at length to the press.

The BBC did manage to get the Queen to agree to their documentary The Coronation in 2018.

However Buckingham Palace imposed an array of strict rules for the show.

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