The eyes have it: Rory Stewart’s ‘magnificently strange’ Newsnight moment goes viral

Rory Stewart has been an Afghan NGO leader, a Conservative leadership candidate, a Harvard professor, a popular podcaster, and the deputy governor of an Iraqi province. This week, he created a moment that drew wider attention than any of them: he fixed a beady gaze on a fellow Newsnight panellist for the longest four seconds in television history.

Stewart, who now co-presents The Rest Is Politics with Alastair Campbell, appeared on the BBC programme on 18 September – but in the last few days, a clip of the moment in question has taken on a life of its own on social media.