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

Rory Stewart watches his fellow panellist, the journalist Ailbhe Rea, speak on the BBC’s Newsnight. Photograph: BBC Newsnight

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.