Anthony Clare certainly knew how to press the emotional buttons. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell/Rex Features
I always found Professor Anthony Clare essential listening, while also strongly disapproving of him. I thought the way he used his status as a psychiatrist in exploiting celebs for sensationalist ends was pretty dodgy - most clearly in the Claire Rayner interview but in many others too. He certainly knew how to press the emotional buttons.
On the other hand, I have never met an interviewee who regretted doing Clare and many of them seemed to feel grateful. Also, I gather he did offer some follow-up - I think Joanna Lumley told me he helped with her sister.
A deeper worry was that I felt he was totally sexist and believed, au fond, that women should be at home cooking meals for hubby and raising their children - I felt that he wanted to demolish women far more than he did men. But certainly he elicited the most interesting radio interviews of my lifetime.
