Veteran BBC journalist David Dimbleby interviewed Bill Clinton for TV in 2004 and  enraged the former US president with questions about his denial of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. 

This weekend, Dimbleby – who was for a long time the BBC’s premier broadcaster of public events including general elections and royal ceremonies – shared that he had raised the subject of oral sex with Clinton to win a bet with a friend. The broadcaster told The Times newspaper about why he had asked Clinton – who initially denied sexual relations with Lewinsky – whether oral sex did not count as sexual relations. 

“That was a bet actually, the oral sex thing,” Dimbleby revealed. “A friend of mine said, ‘I bet you a bottle of champagne you won’t ask him about that.’ And I said, ‘I bet you do.’ It didn’t go down too well.”

During the interview for the BBC’s flagship current affairs show Panorama, Clinton told his inquisitor: 

“Look how much time you’ve spent asking me these questions in this time you’ve had. That’s because that’s what you care about, because that’s what you think helps you and this interview. I care about what happened to the people I fought for.

“That’s why people like you always help the far-Right because you like to hurt people and you like to talk about how bad people are and all their personal failings.”

“You made a decision to allocate your time in a certain way, you should take responsibility for that. You should say ‘Yes, I care much more about this than whether people in Bosnia were saved.’”

Clinton added: “I don’t make any excuses for myself. I’ve already said I’m pretty tough on myself.”

The interview drew one of Panorama‘s largest ever UK audiences, joining a list that included Princess Diana’s now-discredited interview with Martin Bashir in 1995.