Martha Kearney's week

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By Martha Kearney Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

Sometimes the best radio happens by accident.

Let me explain. I have always been particularly inept when it comes to operating recording equipment.

One of my first big assignments was as a reporter in Sheffield at Radio Hallam when I was sent out to interview Roy Jenkins from the Gang of Four (for younger readers, the political grouping, not the band).

Roy Jenkins: An early victim of Martha's radio mishaps

All went well, I thought, and he went off to his next speech but then I opened up my Uher recorder and found a mess of tangled tape, ruining the whole interview.

I had to chase around Sheffield to find him again and by the time I reached his hotel, a certain amount of claret had been consumed.

He was kind enough to redo the interview and, as the wine had loosened his tongue, the interview was more indiscreet.

A similar thing happened in New York this week while making a special programme to mark the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

US scrum

My producer Ryan and I were waiting outside Federal Hall on Wall Street where President Obama was making a speech.

The great and good of the financial world emerged from the building, among them Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank.

He was immediately surrounded by American journalists but I managed to elbow my way into the scrum and throw him a question.

I managed to stammer out a breathless question about whether he agreed with President Obama that some elements in the financial world hadn't learned the lessons of Lehmans

Excellent until I emerged, looked down at my recorder and realised that it had been on pause throughout.

But my producer Ryan wouldn't let it go. "Look, he's heading down the street, you can catch him up".

So I ran (after a fashion) and tried again. "I'm heading for the subway," Paul Volcker growled at me.

But I managed to stammer out a breathless question about whether he agreed with President Obama that some elements in the financial world had not learned the lessons of Lehmans.

Toxic word

His answer reflected a widespread view which is that for many banks, it was business as usual so much tighter regulation is needed. So the "sprint" was worth it.

On the same programme I interviewed the chancellor live and discussed what would be agreed at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh about banking regulation.

I also asked him about public spending and whether he would be prepared to use the word "cuts", which seems have become toxic in Labour circles.

He replied tartly: "This is not some sort of silly game."

He said: "As we come out of this, as we see recovery established, we have a plan to halve the deficit over a four-year period. That does not mean you are going into some sort of dark age where the lights go off and nothing happens."

'Guns for hire'

I think we will hear a lot more of this debate as the party conference season begins.

I think we will also hear many discussions about the British mission in Afghanistan which is rising up the political agenda.

On Thursday we had an exclusive interview with the former special forces commander Lt Gen Sir Graeme Lamb who has been appointed to oversee a programme of reconciliation with some elements of the Taliban.

He admitted that the campaign in Afghanistan had "drifted" until US commander General Stanley McChrystal took charge.

But he was optimistic about wooing some militants. He said the "vast majority" of the Taliban were "guns for hire" motivated by money.

"These are local people who need to have a dialogue to understand why, and then they have the choice to have a better life. I always said in Iraq you can buy an insurgency if you have enough money."

So it has been an interesting week for me but I have to say that the highlight was last Saturday at the Last Night of the Proms when I donned a deerstalker to shoot a rifle at a man playing a vacuum cleaner. Don't ask.