Right, so ABC Australia’s flagship current-affairs programme, 7.30, invited Professor Mohammad Marandi on to discuss Iran, apparently under the impression he had never done a television interview before.

Because this was either a spectacular insult to his intelligence or to ours. Possibly both.

The woman interviewing him was Sarah Ferguson, the long-serving host of 7.30, with a reputation for combative interviews. She has built a career on pressing difficult guests, so this was not some nervous junior presenter accidentally getting out of their depth.

And yet Ferguson opened as though Marandi would simply accept every Western premise placed in front of him, nod politely, and begin answering from inside their framing. Oh dear!

Now, Marandi is hardly famous for sitting there quietly while presenters load th ...