interview-cue-sheet-writer

Interview Cue Sheet Writer

What This Skill Does

Produces a formatted radio interview cue sheet with scripted intro, key questions, suggested follow-ups, factual reference points, and a clean out-cue for the presenter.

When To Use This Skill

• A presenter needs a structured document to run a live or pre-recorded studio interview
• You have a guest booked and need to brief the presenter on background, angles, and likely defensive answers
• An interview needs to serve a specific editorial purpose (news-breaking, human interest, accountability, expert explanation) and the questions need to be shaped accordingly
• A producer is preparing a presenter who has little prior knowledge of the subject

What You Need To Provide

Required: Guest name and role, the topic or news hook for the interview, and the interview's editorial purpose (e.g. accountability, explanation, human interest, debate). Optional: Programme name and tone, interview duration, any sensitive areas to handle carefully, background notes or pre-interview research, specific claims to challenge, and whether the interview is live or pre-recorded.

How the Assistant Approaches This

1. Establishes the interview's editorial purpose and uses it to sequence the questions — opening questions build rapport and establish context; mid-interview questions go to the core of the story; the final section handles accountability, challenge, or forward-looking angles
2. Writes 6–10 primary questions in plain spoken English, each focused on a single point; adds 2–3 follow-up prompts per key question to handle likely deflections or non-answers
3. Provides a scripted intro (20–30 seconds) that the presenter can read verbatim, a factual reference card (3–5 bullet points) for use mid-interview, and a clean out-cue thanking the guest and returning to the programme

Output Format

A single A4-equivalent document divided into four sections: SCRIPTED INTRO, FACTUAL REFERENCE CARD, QUESTIONS, and OUT-CUE. Questions are numbered and bold; follow-ups are indented in plain text below each. Factual reference card uses bullet points. Document includes a header showing guest name, role, interview duration, and programme name. Total length: 400–600 words. Tone of the questions matches the stated editorial purpose — probing but fair for accountability, curious and warm for human interest.

Quality Criteria

• Opening question is accessible and open — it does not presuppose facts or put the guest immediately on the defensive
• At least one question directly addresses the news hook or the reason the guest was booked
• Follow-up prompts anticipate the most likely deflection or non-answer and provide a redirect
• Factual reference card contains only verified facts provided in the input — no invented figures or statistics
• Out-cue is a natural spoken close that does not sound abrupt or formulaic
• Questions are in spoken English — no legalese, no compound questions, no double negatives

Example

Input

Programme: "Drive Time" — afternoon news-feature show, accessible and engaged tone Guest: Dr. Amara Osei, consultant in emergency medicine Topic: Record A&E waiting times published today — national figures show one in four patients waiting over 8 hours Editorial purpose: Explanation and mild accountability — what is causing this, what could fix it, who is responsible Interview duration: 6 minutes Sensitive area: Do not imply the NHS is failing; frame around systemic pressure, not individual failure

Output

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DRIVE TIME — INTERVIEW CUE SHEET Guest: Dr. Amara Osei, Consultant in Emergency Medicine Topic: Record A&E Waiting Times Duration: 6 minutes (live) Date: [insert broadcast date]

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SCRIPTED INTRO (~25 secs)

New figures out today show that one in four patients in England waited more than eight hours in A&E last month — the highest proportion on record. Those are the kinds of delays that can mean the difference between a good outcome and a very difficult one. Joining me now is Dr. Amara Osei, a consultant in emergency medicine. Dr. Osei — welcome to the programme.

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FACTUAL REFERENCE CARD

• National A&E figures published today: 25% of patients waited more than 8 hours (record high)
• Target: 95% of patients to be seen within 4 hours (this target has not been met nationally since 2015)
• Ambulance handover delays are a key contributing factor — average handover time now 45 minutes
• "Corridor care" — treating patients in corridors due to lack of beds — was cited in today's report
• Discharge delays (patients medically fit to leave but with no social care package in place) account for approximately 14% of occupied beds

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QUESTIONS

1. When you see those figures — one in four patients waiting more than eight hours — what does that mean in practice for the people in your department?

• Follow-up: Can you give us a sense of what eight hours in an A&E waiting room actually looks like for a patient?
• Follow-up: Is this a situation that has crept up on the system, or did it feel like it arrived suddenly?

2. The report highlights ambulance handover delays as a significant factor. For listeners who don't know what that means — can you explain what happens at a handover, and why it takes so long?

• Follow-up: So the ambulance crew cannot leave until they hand the patient to a nurse — and if there's no nurse free, the ambulance just waits outside?

3. There's a concept in today's report called "corridor care." Is that as stark as it sounds?

• Follow-up: How do you, as a clinician, manage that situation — both for the patient and for your own team?

4. A lot of people listening will be thinking: where do you start fixing this? What is the single pressure point that, if it were resolved, would make the biggest difference?

• Follow-up: The discharge delay issue — that's about social care, not NHS care. Is that a problem emergency medicine can solve from within?
• Follow-up: If you were briefing the Health Secretary for five minutes tomorrow, what would you say?

5. For someone listening who may need to use A&E — perhaps tonight, perhaps next week — what is your honest advice?

• Follow-up: Are there situations where you'd say: don't come to A&E, go somewhere else instead?

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OUT-CUE

Dr. Amara Osei, consultant in emergency medicine — thank you very much for joining us on Drive Time this afternoon. We'll have more on today's NHS figures after the traffic update, coming up.

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Known Limitations

• Follow-up questions are based on typical interview patterns and common deflections; a guest with an unusual or highly technical response may not be well-covered by the suggested redirects
• Cannot anticipate breaking news that emerges after the cue sheet is generated — presenters should always check for late developments before going live
• The factual reference card only contains facts explicitly provided in the input; the skill does not conduct independent research or verify figures
• For very short interviews (under 3 minutes), the full question set will need pruning — the skill will not automatically reduce questions to fit a 2-minute slot

Related Skills

• two-way-brief-writer
• presenter-link-writer
• package-script-writer