Newsnight's Matt Chorley demonstrates the enduring power of the BBC staple in the age of social media and viral clips

Dedicated TV newshounds might know that I once spent many a late hour at the BBC, swotting up on the day’s events for the much-missed Paper Review. Even so, there’s something thrilling about sitting in the Newsnight production office at Broadcasting House of a Friday, a few hours before showtime on what is, as newsroom veterans like to call it, “a big day”.

We’re waiting for presenter Matt Chorley to return by train from the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, a few hours after Nigel Farage’s speech and a day after an investigation by Channel 4 News into foreign donations put an almighty spanner into the party’s public messages of the day.

When Chorley arrives in comfy travel clothes, he’s straight into a huddle with producers about guests, clips, running order, how best to frame the evening’s programme: “We don’t need to repeat the allegations. What’s the wider story? Is it the change in Farage’s fortunes from a year ago? Perhaps we start with a clip from then. What a difference a year makes…”

Everyone in the room is buzzing. After 46 years on air, it’s clear that Newsnight has lost none of its hunger. The mission, says executive editor Jonathan Aspinwall, is to enable viewers “going to the pub the next day to hold their own on any given subject, to feel they’ve learnt something.” For Chorley, “the News at Ten tells you what just happened. Newsnight tells you why or what might happen next.”

Sometimes it does more than that. Depending on your era, the titles and opening theme will instantly bring to mind grilling then Home Secretary Michael Howard (“Did you threaten to overrule him?” asked 12 times) or Emily Maitlis’s ice-cool dissection of then Prince Andrew’s “too honourable” attitude to Jeffrey Epstein.

Both stories flew in pre-social media times; today, they’d be viral clips, mashed to music. In a far more crowded market, moments such as Victoria Derbyshire’s recent request of Andy Burnham for a reminder of the fiscal rules still break through and have helped Newsnight secure a huge following across platforms which, with budget and running time both reduced, all helps – along with a Royal Television Society award (for Derbyshire’s interview with bereaved racing commentator John Hunt), and an audience uplift of over 20 per cent in two years.

Now Chorley’s Friday show is being moved to 7pm, no doubt an economically prudent decision to fill an expensive scheduling hole at a stroke, but also a reward for all its recent gains, as well as an investment in Chorley, who’s clearly a BBC star on the rise.

Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google.

Although he’s made his name from print to screen via radio and stand-up, and offers a beguiling mix of jocularity and proven political chops, the former Times journalist tells me the impartiality of BBC news is “weirdly freeing”. “Being a newspaper columnist meant rustling up an opinion,” he says. “Not everything has to be the worst thing that ever happened. I don’t find my own opinions interesting enough to think that they should really be foisted on anyone else.”

One thing to emerge from RT’s postbag is our collective eye-rolling when reporters try to make themselves the news, or worse, into celebrities. How will newly prime-timed Chorley resist such lure? “Ultimately, deep down, I am a journalist. And the reason I’m a journalist is because I like finding stuff out and telling people about it, and I just think politics is really important.”

I head home and turn on the TV. There’s Chorley, now in a navy suit, standing facing the camera. Focused, still cheerful, waiting for his cue. “What a difference a year makes…”

The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here.

Newsnight is on BBC Two at 10.30pm on Mon-Thurs, and 7pm on Friday 18 September

Check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast