Beth Hale

The safest of hands, with flair, versatility, and a relentless eye on the news line, Beth Hale would be a truly worthy winner of this year’s Interviewer of the Year. She effortlessly conveys emotional nuance and complexity - as evidenced by the highly impassioned subjects in her trio of entries - with a laser focus on what interests Daily Mail readers. Her subjects trust her - indeed, her interview with sex therapist victim Ella Janneh was the result of careful, sensitive approaches to her and multiple other women who had been involved in both her abuser's work and private life - and Hale is accomplished at building a strong rapport with subjects who are often at their lowest and most vulnerable.

Indeed, the shocking story of Ella Janneh shows Hale at her most powerful: recounting a devastating incident of abuse, interviewing a vulnerable woman with a complex emotional past, and uncovering a scandal about how a man weaponised his ‘therapy’ work for his own sexual gratification made this a gripping, if terrible, read.

The emotions are just as intense in Hale’s conversation with Sarah deLagarde, the mother of two who, after being hit by two Tube trains, willed herself to live by thinking of her children’s faces. Her brave journey - and the revelation of the jaw-droppingly lax safety measures on London Underground - are expertly retold by Hale.

The instincts of every reader will have been triggered by Hale’s interview with the parents of Katie Allan, who took her own life after finding herself behind bars for the kind of stupid mistake made by many young people: getting behind the wheel after one too many. The unfurling devastation from that one mistake, the ripples which continue to impact Katie’s family, are delicately unpicked by Hale, with her customary skill.