Alastair Brian Walden (born on 8 July 1932 in West Bromwich) is a British journalist and broadcaster who was a Labour Member of Parliament for a decade. He is the father of actor Ben Walden.
The son of a glass-worker, Walden attended West Bromwich Grammar School. He then won a major open scholarship to study at The Queen's College, Oxford and in 1957 was elected President of the Oxford Union. He completed a postgraduate course at Nuffield College, Oxford, before becoming a University Lecturer.
At the 1964 general election, Walden was elected the MP for Birmingham All Saints, later Birmingham Ladywood, in an election where race dominated the Birmingham campaign (see Patrick Gordon Walker). He was re-elected in the subsequent General Elections of 1966, 1970, February 1974 and October 1974. He was a campaigner for the liberalisation of the cannabis and gambling laws, even named by some as "the bookies' MP" when he was revealed to be receiving more from the National Association of Bookmakers than from his parliamentary salary.
On 16 June 1977, Walden resigned from the House of Commons by taking the Chiltern Hundreds, to become a journalist and broadcaster. He has presented various television programmes, mostly for London Weekend Television, such as Weekend World, The Walden Interview and Walden, and was a member of the board of Central Television between 1981 and 1984.
Walden is considered one of the finest political interviewers in British broadcasting, tenacious and ruthless. He was well known for his one to one interviews of major politicians, especially Margaret Thatcher. He was said to be her favourite interviewer, although he would give her a tough ride. In November 1989, Thatcher gave Walden a famous interview when her own Party was turning against her. He did not let up on her:
- Brian Walden: "You come over as being someone who one of your backbenchers said is slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else – why? Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?"
- Margaret Thatcher: "Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you."
Brian Walden continues to broadcast. In March 2005, he began presenting a ten minute programme on Fridays, called A Point of View, on BBC Radio 4, in a spot formerly occupied by Alistair Cooke's Letter From America.
He lives in Guernsey and is firmly against the ban on fox-hunting.
Famous quotes containing the words brian and/or walden:
“You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get Capone.”
—David Mamet, U.S. screenwriter, and Brian DePalma. Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery)
“A country losing touch with its own history is like an old man losing his glasses, a distressing sight, at once vulnerable, unsure, and easily disoriented.”
—George Walden (b. 1939)