[AaronTV]

To be honest, I seem to recall most of the comparisons that were drawn were about Victoria being a more competent and challenging interviewer than their respective abilities to wrap the programme up on time.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but I think the suggestion that Laura randomly changes the program’s ending time on a whim and is able to do demonstrated how ridiculous some of the criticism was becoming. 

It’s clearly going to be an unpopular opinion here, but I do not believe Victoria Derbyshire would have been a good choice for the Sunday morning slot. 

Derbyshire’s aggressive and combative style is fine for Newsnight, but it’s certainly not right for Sunday mornings on BBC One in my opinion. You can ask challenging questions and remain firm without doing so in the way that Derbyshire does. It’s actually more of a skill to be able to do that (like Susanna Reid, for example); anybody can get aggressive and confrontational. 

I think it’s also worth remembering that Derbyshire’s BBC Two/News Channel show was a bit of a disaster ratings wise, and Newsnight is now facing the chop amidst dwindling ratings. Clearly that’s not Derbyshire’s fault entirely, but it does suggest her style does not have mass appeal. 

Laura had a pretty difficult job taking over from Andrew Marr - an incredibly well known, liked and respected broadcaster. It had the potential to be a real disaster if they’d have got it wrong. To have retained all of Marr’s audience, and increased digital consumption, is a real achievement. 

Would Derbyshire have done the same? Frankly, I’m not convinced.

[bilky asko]

I think it’s also worth remembering that Derbyshire’s BBC Two/News Channel show was a bit of a disaster ratings wise, and Newsnight is now facing the chop amidst dwindling ratings. Clearly that’s not Derbyshire’s fault entirely, but it does suggest her style does not have mass appeal.

The Victoria Derbyshire programme was hardly Newsnight AM.

[Will]

Derbyshire’s aggressive and combative style is fine for Newsnight, but it’s certainly not right for Sunday mornings on BBC One in my opinion. You can ask challenging questions and remain firm without doing so in the way that Derbyshire does. It’s actually more of a skill to be able to do that (like Susanna Reid, for example); anybody can get aggressive and confrontational. 

Really? I think Derbyshire strikes a pretty good balance of having the warmth to present a Sunday morning programme whilst being a formidable and thorough interviewer. She certainty comes across as more personable than Kuenssberg who, whilst good at her recent documentaries, seems the wrong fit for Sunday mornings.

I think Derbyshire is probably the best political interviewer the BBC have now with Andrew Neil and Maitlis both gone. She’d be a good fit for the General Election party leader interviews that Neil used to do.

[ViridianFan]

Slightly off topic, was Victoria standing in for Jeremy Vine today? I only caught snippets popping in and out the house. The bits I heard she sounded more relaxed. She must have impressed my two cockatiels (why the radio is left on) as anyone they don’t like they screech the house down.

[DavidWhitfield]

She was indeed - www.bbc.co.uk  - seemingly only for today, as Jeremy presented yesterday and is scheduled to present for the rest of the week.

BBC Radio 2 - Jeremy Vine, Victoria Derbyshire sits in
Victoria discusses the King's Speech, loved ones' ashes, breast cancer…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[House]

From Twitter/X, it appears Jeremy was at George Alagiah’s memorial (as were a very large number of other BBC journalists), so that’s presumably why Victoria was asked to cover.