Question Time (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Question Time is a topical debate
BBC
television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?
. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience. The independent production company Mentorn has made the programme for the BBC since 1998.
It is usually recorded about 2 hours prior to transmission, but has been broadcast live as recently as May 2009 when the broadcast came from Salisbury at the earlier time of 9.00pm BST.
The current series began on 16 September 2010 and is currently being shown on BBC One
at 10.35pm on Thursdays. Usually at least once a month BBC One Northern Ireland
replaces it with the more local debate show Let's Talk hosted by Mark Carruthers. Viewers in the United Kingdom can also view the show via the BBC iPlayer
.
question programme, Any Questions?
. It was originally intended to have only a short run, but the programme became very popular and was duly extended. The guests on the very first show were Edna O'Brien
, Teddy Taylor
, Michael Foot
and Derek Worlock, Archbishop of Liverpool. Veteran newsman Sir Robin Day
was the programme's first chairman, presenting it for nearly 10 years until June 1989. His famous catchphrase when he had introduced the panel was "There they are, and here we go." There were several guest hosts during Day's tenure, the most frequent being Sue Lawley
. After Day retired, Peter Sissons
took over and continued until 1993. Since 1994, David Dimbleby
has been the programme's presenter. Any Questions? is still broadcast and is chaired by Dimbleby's brother Jonathan Dimbleby
.
, the Conservatives
, and the Liberal Democrats) and another public figure, for example non-governmental organisation directors, newspaper columnist
s, or religious
leaders. In 1999, the panel was enlarged to five, with another non-partisan member or leading member of a fourth political party joining the panel.
The Chairman sits in the middle and chairs the debate, deciding who can speak and selecting the questions for the panel to answer. Questions are taken from the audience before the programme goes on air, and the chairman picks some to put to the panel. The panel do not get to see the questions before recording begins. During the programme, the presenter selects a member of the audience to put a question to the panel and gives each member an opportunity to answer the question and each others' points. Usually the first question deals with the major political or news event of the week, and the last with a humorous issue to be answered quickly.
For a brief period in the mid-1990s, the programme used voting keypads to take a poll of the audience, who were stated to have been selected to provide a balanced sample compared with the nation as a whole.
During general election
campaigns, the programme has taken a different format, with the party leaders appearing as single guests and fielding questions from the audience.
The BBC commissioned a new programme called The Big Questions
in 2007 which has a similar format to Question Time but focuses on ethical and religious issues. It is broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday mornings between 10am and 11am. Both programmes are produced by Mentorn Media.
and a selection of those comments are posted on Ceefax
page 155 (not available in Wales). Comments are edited and put to air by a team of four journalists based on the seventh floor of Television Centre in London. The system displays one message at a time, and usually shows several tens of messages throughout each hour-long episode. The system is popular because its editors display both serious and lighthearted comments.
On average, around 3,500 texts are received during each hour-long programme, although 12,000 texts were once recorded in one frantic programme in 2004. Text quantity is directly related to the composition of the panel. The panellists who generate the most texts are: Tony Benn
, Ann Widdecombe
and Ken Livingstone
, with messages of support and derision in broadly equal numbers.
Twitter
On 24 September 2009, the show launched its Twitter
presence and the show's presenter has regularly announced its presence on Twitter since late 2009. Using the Twitter ID "@bbcquestiontime" it tweeted using the #bbcqt hashtag. By early 2010, this had become one of the UK's most active "Twitter backchannels" to a TV show. @bbcquestiontime claimed 10,000 tweets had been sent around the show on 7th October 2010. The show had over 40,000 followers on Twitter by October 2010 and this exceeded 50,000 on the evening of 3rd February 2011.
On June 9 2011, Question Time became one of the most-tweeted about shows of the week in the UK, with 5,000 tweets during the programme, with tweeting continuing through to the next day. In addition to the more sober analysis of the discussion, Question Time also has a parallel Twitter backchannel based on the spoof account Dimblebot - purportedly a robot version of Dimbleby - where the entire premise of the programme is claimed to be a demonstration of Dimbleby's ability to defeat the panel. It became clear during the riot special that David Dimbleby knows of the existence of Dimblebot and the associated Dimbledance
. After his departure the BBC decided to try to widen the programme's appeal by moving it around the country. Currently the programme is presented from a different location each week, usually in the UK, with a local studio audience each time. The make-up of the panel is usually altered to reflect the country where it is filmed. When in Scotland, for example, the programme may invite a Scottish National Party
MP
or MSP
onto the panel.
Some editions of the programme have been made in locations outside the UK, such as Australia in November 1999, before the republic referendum
. In October 2004 a US election special was made in Miami, Florida, with an American studio audience and guests including Michael Moore
on the panel. On 10 March 2005, another overseas edition of the programme was shown from Shanghai, China, and a programme from Paris, France was broadcast on 26 May 2005, three days before the French referendum
on the EU Constitution
. On 7 July 2005, an edition was broadcast from Johannesburg
in South Africa, coinciding with the G8 summit
in Gleneagles
. It just so happened that this edition was broadcast on the same day as the suicide bombings on the London Underground
and the London bus in Tavistock Square
, therefore diverting the original topic of this QT special somewhat.
In time for the G8
conference in Moscow, there was a special programme from the city on 30 March 2006. Another US election special was held in Washington D.C. on 30 October 2008.
in Glasgow, the peripatetic
nature of the programme will continue.
declared his support in principle for "a marriage" between the Liberal Party
and any party which might be formed by the Gang of Four; David Owen
, who was also on the programme, said he could see advantages in an "electoral alliance" between them. This prefigured the period 1983–1987 when Owen and Steel were Leaders of the SDP
/Liberal Alliance
and tension grew over whether their deal was a prelude to a merger of the parties or merely a temporary electoral pact.
During the 1983 election campaign
, Conservative
Foreign Secretary Francis Pym
was asked by an A-level student named Andy Davis about the implications of the Conservatives winning the election with a landslide victory. He began by casting doubt on the likelihood of this happening and then observed "I think landslides on the whole don't produce successful governments". This remark was regarded by many as a gaffe and Margaret Thatcher
was reported to have been angry at Pym. After the election (won by the Conservatives on a landslide) she sacked him as Foreign Secretary.
In a 1984 edition, Alan Clark
, a junior government Minister at the time, was openly critical of a government decision to buy a foreign-made missile system, prompting guest host Sue Lawley
to ask the audience, "Is there anyone here who wishes to defend the government on this, because its Minister doesn't?"
The programme broadcast on 13 September 2001, which was devoted to the political implications of the 11 September 2001 attacks, featured many contributions from members of the audience who were anti-American, expressing the view that 'the United States had it coming'. The BBC received more than 2,000 complaints and later apologised to viewers for causing offence, stating that the edition should not have been broadcast live, but rather should have been recorded and edited.
In 2002, the editor of Private Eye
, Ian Hislop
, made an open attack on Jeffrey Archer, who had been imprisoned for perjury
, when his wife Mary Archer was a fellow panellist. Mary Archer was noticeably angry that the issue had been raised and criticised Hislop after the recording had finished.
In March 2007, an Iraq Special was broadcast, featuring Tony Benn
, Benazir Bhutto
, Des Browne
, Liam Fox
, Charles Kennedy
and, via video link from Washington D.C., John R. Bolton
. The episode is particularly memorable for the clashes between Benn and Bolton.
On 11 October 2007, former editor of The Sun
newspaper Kelvin MacKenzie
appeared on the programme in Cheltenham
and launched an attack on Scotland. During a debate about tax, MacKenzie claimed that "Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like London and the south east... Scots enjoy spending it (money) but they don't enjoy creating it, which is the opposite to down south." The comments came as part of an attack on Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
who MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a Scot" and a "socialist", and insisting that this was relevant to the debate. Fellow panellist Chuka Umunna
from the think tank
Compass called his comments "absolutely disgraceful", and booing and jeering were heard from the Cheltenham studio audience. The BBC received 350 complaints and MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism in both Scotland and England. On 3 July 2008, it was reported that the BBC Trust's editorial complaints unit had cleared the programme of any wrongdoing. Question Time then proceeded to broadcast the following question from Nick Hartley as part of the programme on the same evening: 'After the media coverage of [Andy] Murray's rise and fall, are we now to infer that the English resent the Scots more than the Scots resent the English?'.
The 12 November 2009 edition was the first time in over 15 years that David Dimbleby
did not host the show, having been taken to hospital as a precaution after being briefly knocked out by a rearing
bullock
at his farm in Sussex
. The show was instead hosted by John Humphrys
.
After he was elected to the European Parliament, Nick Griffin
the leader of the British National Party
was invited onto Question Time for the first time, to appear on 22 October 2009. The decision led to controversy and political debate
. Hundreds of people protested outside BBC Television Centre
as the edition was filmed; six people were arrested after 25 anti-fascist protesters forced their way into the main reception. The edition attracted eight million viewers, and also drew a large number of complaints as a result of its content. Griffin himself said that he would make a formal complaint to the BBC for the way he believed he was treated by the show's other guests and the audience, who he described as a "lynch mob."
An edition aired on 19 May 2011 was recorded at Wormwood Scrubbs Prison
in London
. The episode was the first to feature prisoners as part of the audience, while panelists included Justice Secretary Ken Clarke
who attempted to defend controversial remarks he had made earlier in the week about rape sentencing.
A special edition of the programme was aired on 11 August 2011 following the outbreak of rioting
which had occurred during the previous weekend and earlier that week. Question Time had been off air for its annual summer break at the time and the edition was a scheduled at short notice following the riots.
and Margaret Beckett
. This figure, of 3.8 million, was a million more than usual, and surpassed the figure of 3.4 million recorded in 2003 for the declaration of the war on Iraq
. There was controversy in late 2009
when Nick Griffin from the BNP was invited to appear on 22 October 2009; a new record was set with 7.9 million viewers for that episode.
On 20 June 2005, with a panel of Tony Benn
, Justine Greening
, Lembit Opik
, June Sarpong
and Otis Ferry
. On 6 July 2006, with a twenty year old student joining David Miliband
, Richard Madelely
, Lord Coe and Julia Goldsworthy
.
On 5 July 2007 an 18 year old student joined a panel of Ed Miliband
, Sayeeda Warsi
, Davina McCall
and Douglas Murray
. On 9 July 2009 one of the panellists was an eighteen year old student. Other panellists were Andy Burnham, Jeremy Hunt, Sarah Teather
and Shami Chakrabarti
.
}
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?
Any Questions?
Any Questions? is a topical debate radio programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:It is broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Friday evenings and repeated on Saturday afternoons, when it is followed by a phone-in response programme, Any Answers?, previously a postal response slot...
. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience. The independent production company Mentorn has made the programme for the BBC since 1998.
It is usually recorded about 2 hours prior to transmission, but has been broadcast live as recently as May 2009 when the broadcast came from Salisbury at the earlier time of 9.00pm BST.
The current series began on 16 September 2010 and is currently being shown on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
at 10.35pm on Thursdays. Usually at least once a month BBC One Northern Ireland
BBC One Northern Ireland
BBC One Northern Ireland is the national variation for BBC Northern Ireland of the network BBC One service broadcast by the BBC. The service is broadcast in Northern Ireland from Broadcasting House in Belfast...
replaces it with the more local debate show Let's Talk hosted by Mark Carruthers. Viewers in the United Kingdom can also view the show via the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
.
Origins
Question Time began on 25 September 1979, as a television version of the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
question programme, Any Questions?
Any Questions?
Any Questions? is a topical debate radio programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:It is broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Friday evenings and repeated on Saturday afternoons, when it is followed by a phone-in response programme, Any Answers?, previously a postal response slot...
. It was originally intended to have only a short run, but the programme became very popular and was duly extended. The guests on the very first show were Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
, Teddy Taylor
Teddy Taylor
Sir Edward MacMillan Taylor, usually known as Teddy Taylor , is a British Conservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1964 to 1979 for Glasgow Cathcart and from 1980 to 2005 for Rochford and Southend East.He was a leading member and sometime Vice-President of the Conservative...
, Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
and Derek Worlock, Archbishop of Liverpool. Veteran newsman Sir Robin Day
Robin Day
Sir Robin Day, OBE was a British political broadcaster and commentator. His obituary in the Guardian stated that "he was the most outstanding television journalist of his generation...
was the programme's first chairman, presenting it for nearly 10 years until June 1989. His famous catchphrase when he had introduced the panel was "There they are, and here we go." There were several guest hosts during Day's tenure, the most frequent being Sue Lawley
Sue Lawley
- Early life and education:Born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, England and brought up in the Black Country, she was educated at Dudley Girls High School and graduated in modern languages from the University of Bristol and some time later started her career at the BBC in Plymouth...
. After Day retired, Peter Sissons
Peter Sissons
Peter George Sissons is a broadcast journalist in the United Kingdom. He was the presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and the BBC News at Ten between 1993 and 2003, as earlier a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4. He is also a former presenter of the BBC's Question Time...
took over and continued until 1993. Since 1994, David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby is a British BBC TV commentator and a presenter of current affairs and political programmes, most notably the BBC's flagship political show Question Time, and more recently, art, architectural history and history series...
has been the programme's presenter. Any Questions? is still broadcast and is chaired by Dimbleby's brother Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, a political commentator and a writer. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of British TV presenter David Dimbleby.-Education:Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a...
.
Format
Question Time began with a panel of four guests, usually one member from each of the three major parties (LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, and the Liberal Democrats) and another public figure, for example non-governmental organisation directors, newspaper columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
s, or religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
leaders. In 1999, the panel was enlarged to five, with another non-partisan member or leading member of a fourth political party joining the panel.
The Chairman sits in the middle and chairs the debate, deciding who can speak and selecting the questions for the panel to answer. Questions are taken from the audience before the programme goes on air, and the chairman picks some to put to the panel. The panel do not get to see the questions before recording begins. During the programme, the presenter selects a member of the audience to put a question to the panel and gives each member an opportunity to answer the question and each others' points. Usually the first question deals with the major political or news event of the week, and the last with a humorous issue to be answered quickly.
For a brief period in the mid-1990s, the programme used voting keypads to take a poll of the audience, who were stated to have been selected to provide a balanced sample compared with the nation as a whole.
During general election
United Kingdom general elections
This is a list of United Kingdom general elections since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, before being co-opted to serve in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, so that Parliament...
campaigns, the programme has taken a different format, with the party leaders appearing as single guests and fielding questions from the audience.
The BBC commissioned a new programme called The Big Questions
The Big Questions
The Big Questions is a faith and ethics television programme usually presented by Nicky Campbell. It is currently broadcast live on BBC One between 10:00am and 11:00am on Sunday, replacing Heaven & Earth as the BBC's religious discussion programme....
in 2007 which has a similar format to Question Time but focuses on ethical and religious issues. It is broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday mornings between 10am and 11am. Both programmes are produced by Mentorn Media.
SMS contributions
Viewers of the show can submit serious or lighthearted comments to the show via SMSSMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
and a selection of those comments are posted on Ceefax
Ceefax
Ceefax is the BBC's teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, started in 1974 and will run until April 2012 for Pages from Ceefax, while the actual interactive service will run until 24 October 2012, in-line with the digital switchover.-History:During the late 60s, engineer...
page 155 (not available in Wales). Comments are edited and put to air by a team of four journalists based on the seventh floor of Television Centre in London. The system displays one message at a time, and usually shows several tens of messages throughout each hour-long episode. The system is popular because its editors display both serious and lighthearted comments.
On average, around 3,500 texts are received during each hour-long programme, although 12,000 texts were once recorded in one frantic programme in 2004. Text quantity is directly related to the composition of the panel. The panellists who generate the most texts are: Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...
and Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, with messages of support and derision in broadly equal numbers.
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
presence and the show's presenter has regularly announced its presence on Twitter since late 2009. Using the Twitter ID "@bbcquestiontime" it tweeted using the #bbcqt hashtag. By early 2010, this had become one of the UK's most active "Twitter backchannels" to a TV show. @bbcquestiontime claimed 10,000 tweets had been sent around the show on 7th October 2010. The show had over 40,000 followers on Twitter by October 2010 and this exceeded 50,000 on the evening of 3rd February 2011.
On June 9 2011, Question Time became one of the most-tweeted about shows of the week in the UK, with 5,000 tweets during the programme, with tweeting continuing through to the next day. In addition to the more sober analysis of the discussion, Question Time also has a parallel Twitter backchannel based on the spoof account Dimblebot - purportedly a robot version of Dimbleby - where the entire premise of the programme is claimed to be a demonstration of Dimbleby's ability to defeat the panel. It became clear during the riot special that David Dimbleby knows of the existence of Dimblebot and the associated Dimbledance
Location
Under Robin Day, Question Time was almost always made in London, at the Greenwood Theatre on the south side of London BridgeLondon Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
. After his departure the BBC decided to try to widen the programme's appeal by moving it around the country. Currently the programme is presented from a different location each week, usually in the UK, with a local studio audience each time. The make-up of the panel is usually altered to reflect the country where it is filmed. When in Scotland, for example, the programme may invite a Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
or MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...
onto the panel.
Some editions of the programme have been made in locations outside the UK, such as Australia in November 1999, before the republic referendum
Australian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had...
. In October 2004 a US election special was made in Miami, Florida, with an American studio audience and guests including Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
on the panel. On 10 March 2005, another overseas edition of the programme was shown from Shanghai, China, and a programme from Paris, France was broadcast on 26 May 2005, three days before the French referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on the EU Constitution
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
. On 7 July 2005, an edition was broadcast from Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
in South Africa, coinciding with the G8 summit
31st G8 summit
The 31st G8 summit was held from July 6 to July 8, 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, United Kingdom and hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair...
in Gleneagles
Gleneagles Hotel
The Gleneagles Hotel is a luxury hotel near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.- History :The hotel was built by the former Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1924, originally with its own railway station...
. It just so happened that this edition was broadcast on the same day as the suicide bombings on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
and the London bus in Tavistock Square
Tavistock Square
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden with a fine garden.-Public art:The centre-piece of the gardens is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, which was installed in 1968....
, therefore diverting the original topic of this QT special somewhat.
In time for the G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
conference in Moscow, there was a special programme from the city on 30 March 2006. Another US election special was held in Washington D.C. on 30 October 2008.
Production
The show is recorded at different venues throughout the UK. Although, as part of plans to relocate BBC production around the UK, the main office of the programme will move to BBC ScotlandBBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
in Glasgow, the peripatetic
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
nature of the programme will continue.
Famous editions
In early 1981, David SteelDavid Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats...
declared his support in principle for "a marriage" between the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and any party which might be formed by the Gang of Four; David Owen
David Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...
, who was also on the programme, said he could see advantages in an "electoral alliance" between them. This prefigured the period 1983–1987 when Owen and Steel were Leaders of the SDP
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
/Liberal Alliance
SDP-Liberal Alliance
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...
and tension grew over whether their deal was a prelude to a merger of the parties or merely a temporary electoral pact.
During the 1983 election campaign
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
, Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Foreign Secretary Francis Pym
Francis Pym
-Bibliography:****- External links :...
was asked by an A-level student named Andy Davis about the implications of the Conservatives winning the election with a landslide victory. He began by casting doubt on the likelihood of this happening and then observed "I think landslides on the whole don't produce successful governments". This remark was regarded by many as a gaffe and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
was reported to have been angry at Pym. After the election (won by the Conservatives on a landslide) she sacked him as Foreign Secretary.
In a 1984 edition, Alan Clark
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
, a junior government Minister at the time, was openly critical of a government decision to buy a foreign-made missile system, prompting guest host Sue Lawley
Sue Lawley
- Early life and education:Born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, England and brought up in the Black Country, she was educated at Dudley Girls High School and graduated in modern languages from the University of Bristol and some time later started her career at the BBC in Plymouth...
to ask the audience, "Is there anyone here who wishes to defend the government on this, because its Minister doesn't?"
The programme broadcast on 13 September 2001, which was devoted to the political implications of the 11 September 2001 attacks, featured many contributions from members of the audience who were anti-American, expressing the view that 'the United States had it coming'. The BBC received more than 2,000 complaints and later apologised to viewers for causing offence, stating that the edition should not have been broadcast live, but rather should have been recorded and edited.
In 2002, the editor of Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
, Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
, made an open attack on Jeffrey Archer, who had been imprisoned for perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
, when his wife Mary Archer was a fellow panellist. Mary Archer was noticeably angry that the issue had been raised and criticised Hislop after the recording had finished.
In March 2007, an Iraq Special was broadcast, featuring Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, Des Browne
Des Browne
Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 1997 to 2010...
, Liam Fox
Liam Fox
Liam Fox MP is a British Conservative politician, Member of Parliament for North Somerset, and former Secretary of State for Defence....
, Charles Kennedy
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....
and, via video link from Washington D.C., John R. Bolton
John R. Bolton
John Robert Bolton is an American lawyer and diplomat who has served in several Republican presidential administrations. He served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment...
. The episode is particularly memorable for the clashes between Benn and Bolton.
On 11 October 2007, former editor of The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie is an English media executive and former newspaper editor. He is best known for being editor of The Sun newspaper between 1981 and 1994, an era in which the paper was established as Britain's best selling newspaper.- Biography :MacKenzie was educated at Alleyn's School...
appeared on the programme in Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
and launched an attack on Scotland. During a debate about tax, MacKenzie claimed that "Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like London and the south east... Scots enjoy spending it (money) but they don't enjoy creating it, which is the opposite to down south." The comments came as part of an attack on Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
who MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a Scot" and a "socialist", and insisting that this was relevant to the debate. Fellow panellist Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna
Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British Labour Party politician and employment lawyer. He has been the Member of Parliament for Streatham since 2010. After less than 18 months in Parliament, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary by Labour Leader Ed Miliband on 7 October 2011...
from the think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
Compass called his comments "absolutely disgraceful", and booing and jeering were heard from the Cheltenham studio audience. The BBC received 350 complaints and MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism in both Scotland and England. On 3 July 2008, it was reported that the BBC Trust's editorial complaints unit had cleared the programme of any wrongdoing. Question Time then proceeded to broadcast the following question from Nick Hartley as part of the programme on the same evening: 'After the media coverage of [Andy] Murray's rise and fall, are we now to infer that the English resent the Scots more than the Scots resent the English?'.
The 12 November 2009 edition was the first time in over 15 years that David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby is a British BBC TV commentator and a presenter of current affairs and political programmes, most notably the BBC's flagship political show Question Time, and more recently, art, architectural history and history series...
did not host the show, having been taken to hospital as a precaution after being briefly knocked out by a rearing
Rear (horse)
Rearing occurs when a horse or other equid "stands up" on its hind legs with the forelegs off the ground. Rearing may be linked to fright, aggression, excitement, disobedience, or pain. It is not uncommon to see stallions rearing in the wild when they fight, while striking at their opponent with...
bullock
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
at his farm in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. The show was instead hosted by John Humphrys
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
.
After he was elected to the European Parliament, Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John "Nick" Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England....
the leader of the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
was invited onto Question Time for the first time, to appear on 22 October 2009. The decision led to controversy and political debate
Question Time British National Party controversy
The Question Time British National Party controversy in early September 2009 followed an invitation by the British Broadcasting Corporation to Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party , to be a panellist on Question Time, one of its flagship television programmes on current...
. Hundreds of people protested outside BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
as the edition was filmed; six people were arrested after 25 anti-fascist protesters forced their way into the main reception. The edition attracted eight million viewers, and also drew a large number of complaints as a result of its content. Griffin himself said that he would make a formal complaint to the BBC for the way he believed he was treated by the show's other guests and the audience, who he described as a "lynch mob."
An edition aired on 19 May 2011 was recorded at Wormwood Scrubbs Prison
Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison)
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B men's prison, located in the Wormwood Scrubs area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, in inner west London, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The episode was the first to feature prisoners as part of the audience, while panelists included Justice Secretary Ken Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
who attempted to defend controversial remarks he had made earlier in the week about rape sentencing.
A special edition of the programme was aired on 11 August 2011 following the outbreak of rioting
2011 England riots
Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson....
which had occurred during the previous weekend and earlier that week. Question Time had been off air for its annual summer break at the time and the edition was a scheduled at short notice following the riots.
Audience figures
On 14 May 2009, Question Time recorded its highest viewing figures in its 30 year run over the MPs' expenses row, with audience members heckling guest panellists Menzies CampbellMenzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
and Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
. This figure, of 3.8 million, was a million more than usual, and surpassed the figure of 3.4 million recorded in 2003 for the declaration of the war on Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. There was controversy in late 2009
Question Time British National Party controversy
The Question Time British National Party controversy in early September 2009 followed an invitation by the British Broadcasting Corporation to Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party , to be a panellist on Question Time, one of its flagship television programmes on current...
when Nick Griffin from the BNP was invited to appear on 22 October 2009; a new record was set with 7.9 million viewers for that episode.
Similar programmes
- BBC Northern IrelandBBC Northern IrelandBBC Northern Ireland is the main public service broadcaster in Northern Ireland.The organisation is one of the three national regions of the BBC, together with BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Based at Broadcasting House, Belfast, it provides television, radio, online and interactive television content...
has Let's Talk, though this is broadcast monthly (replacing Question Time for that week) and has greater audience interaction - BBC WorldBBC WorldBBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
produces an Indian version of the programme for such viewers - Pakistan has developed its own version of Question Time
- Australia has a similar programme, called Q&AQ&A (TV program)Q&A is an Australian television program, broadcast on ABC1 hosted by award-winning news journalist Tony Jones. It is similar to shows like Question Time on the BBC and Questions and Answers on RTÉ....
. It is broadcast live every week on the national public broadcaster ABC1ABC1ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on... - The Irish broadcaster RTÉRaidió Teilifís ÉireannRaidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
produced a similar show, Questions and Answers, which ran from 1986 to 2009, and was replaced by The FrontlineThe Frontline (Irish TV series)The Frontline is a topical debate television series in the Republic of Ireland. The show airs for 60 minutes every Monday night on RTÉ One at 22:30. It debuted on Monday, September 21, 2009. The Frontline replaced a similar political analysis show Questions and Answers...
, which is of a similar format - In March 2010, Dermot O'LearyDermot O'LearyDermot O'Leary is an English television and radio presenter. He established himself as a presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother on Channel 4 before moving on to The X Factor on ITV. O'Leary has also presented on the BBC and has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2...
hosted a spinoff edition of the show, which was broadcast on BBC ThreeBBC ThreeBBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
. It was called First Time Voters' Question Time, and the show was aimed at first time voters. This version of the programme was later commissioned on a permanent, monthly basis on BBC Three, to now be hosted by Richard Bacon, and re-titled Young Voters' Question Time - In 2009, the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
launched a similar, Australian version of the programme, called Q&AQ&A-General:* Q&A is a media relations technique whereby public relations professionals attempt to anticipate journalists' questions on a particular issue and provide answers in order to prepare their spokespeople for press conferences and interviews...
. The programme has become a critical success, achieving extremely positive ratings for the ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in Australia, with a wide audience from a range of demographics not all of which are normally noted for their interest in the Australian political scene.
Schools edition
Several schools editions have been broadcast:On 20 June 2005, with a panel of Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, Justine Greening
Justine Greening
Justine Greening is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. She has been the Member of Parliament for Putney since 2005. She was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury in May 2010, and became Secretary of State for Transport on 14 October 2011...
, Lembit Opik
Lembit Öpik
Lembit Öpik is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat in the 2010 General Election...
, June Sarpong
June Sarpong
June Sarpong MBE is an English television presenter of Ghanaian descent.-Education:Sarpong was born in London to Ghanaian parents. She was educated at Connaught Girls School in Leytonstone and Sir George Monoux College in Walthamstow....
and Otis Ferry
Otis Ferry
Charles Frederick Otis Ferry, born is a British fox hunting enthusiast and prominent pro-hunting protestor. He is the son of singer Bryan Ferry and model Lucy Helmore. Ferry is joint master huntsman of the South Shropshire hunt....
. On 6 July 2006, with a twenty year old student joining David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
, Richard Madelely
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a married couple who are both British television presenters and columnists. Since their marriage, their television appearances have been largely made as a couple. They are best known for presenting This Morning and...
, Lord Coe and Julia Goldsworthy
Julia Goldsworthy
Julia Anne Goldsworthy is a Special Adviser in HM Treasury to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. She was the Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne from 2005 until she lost her seat by 66 votes to George Eustice, the Conservative candidate in the 2010 general election in...
.
On 5 July 2007 an 18 year old student joined a panel of Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
, Sayeeda Warsi
Sayeeda Warsi
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, Baroness Warsi is a British lawyer and politician. She is the co-Chairman of the Conservative Party ....
, Davina McCall
Davina McCall
Davina McCall is an English television presenter and actress, most notable as the presenter of the UK version of Big Brother up until its move to Channel 5.- Early life :...
and Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray
Douglas Murray may refer to:* Douglas Murray , British political journalist, author and commentator* Douglas Murray , Swedish ice hockey player* Doug Murray , American comic book writer...
. On 9 July 2009 one of the panellists was an eighteen year old student. Other panellists were Andy Burnham, Jeremy Hunt, Sarah Teather
Sarah Teather
Sarah Louise Teather is a British Liberal Democrat politician, Member of Parliament for Brent Central, Minister of State at the Department for Education, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay....
and Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti CBE , has been the director of Liberty, a British pressure group, since September 2003. Chakrabarti is the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.-Early life:...
.
External links
- Question Time at BBC Online
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- Question Time BBC iPlayer (UK-only)
- @BBCQuestionTime Twitter