Mother Teresa's BBC interview

In 1968, Mother Teresa visited England and the BBC requested a TV interview of Mother Teresa.

The interviewer was Malcom Mudderidge, of BBC TV

During the interview, Mother Teresa was very nervous in front of the cameras and somewhat faulty in speech. The Interview was a disaster and the producers doubted for a while if it was worth showing except for late at night.

Finally it was shown on Sunday evening. The interview had an extraordinary effect on the viewers.  Something about the woman whose answers to a highly professional interviewer were so perfectly simple and perfectly truthful that the interviewer felt uneasy and had difficulty continuing the interview for the allocated half hour seemed to have touched the nation.

Malcolm himself had been profoundly impressed by Mother Teresa, he said "It was for me one of those special occasions when a face given to unknown seems to stand out from all other faces as uniquely separate and uniquely significant".

 

In fact the response to the interview proved to be greater than any other comparable program.

Contributions and letters poured in from rich, poor, educated, uneducated, young and old.

One woman wrote "this woman spoke to me as no one ever has and I feel I must help her".

Another man wrote "The words of Mother Teresa touch my heart like an arrow".

By public demand they had to air the interview several times.