Media interviews. What’s not to like? Securing an interview for your client with a key media outlet is true PR gold. Think of the great exposure, the client’s message reaching potentially thousands of their target audience, building a great relationship with the journalist and their team. What could go wrong?

However, the path to PR gold is laced with potential pitfalls. These can be overcome, however, with a mixture of research, planning and good old fashioned instinct.

Consider this. What’s the format of the interview – live or pre-recorded? In the studio, or on location? One to one or in a group? What’s the angle they could take and the potentially tricky questions they could ask? What are the key messages you want to communicate and what’s the best way to weave them into the conversation?

Despite this, sometimes mistakes can and do happen. From Amanda Holden’s moon rock gaff to Diane Abbott’s numerical mishaps and Piers Morgan forgetting names – here’s PR Week’s run down of cringe-worthy media interviews from this year.