Question Time (Part 1 - the pre-match build-up)

I know what you're thinking. And you're right, that was my forehead you saw on BBC Question Time on Thursday night!

This man seems to have forgotten his hand puppet.

I love a bit of Question Time. So when at the end of the stand out edition (about phone hacking when we wanted Hugh Grant for actual PM, not acting PM) in July David Dimbleby said that second one back after the summer break was coming from Derry I thought I'd apply for tickets. Well what have you got to lose?!

The form online is more complex than standard audience forms, I suppose trying to be all balanced and what not. I had forgotten all about it until I opened up Twitter on my phone last Monday and saw someone I follow getting a phonecall from the QT people. The missed phonecall and voicemail that I had ignored when I first unlocked my phone (I must have had important news to tweet to ignore this) made sense, it must have been from the audience people!

I listened to the voicemail and sure enough it was from Question Time. I panicked, naturally. Afterall, it's not everyday you get a phonecall to appear on national TV. The girl on Twitter who also had been invited wussed out because she discovered during her conversation with the TV people that they actually want you to participate and not just be there in a 'hello mum capacity'. I swithered as to whether to accept or not. I really didn't want to be on TV asking a question, but would you ever get the opportunity to go again? Probably not.

So I called back and said I could come, thinking in my head that if I changed my mind I could just not show up. The woman on the other end of the phone was quite intimidating. She asked me the same questions I had filled out on the form, I suppose to test me, make sure I really did vote for who I said I did. Then she asked me what my question would be.

Eh...right...question?

She tried to help me out by saying what in the main UK news would I want to talk about.

Eh...right...news?

I reverted to my form (I had filled out the week more women had been rescued from a human trafficking ring). But before I could even get the words 'human trafficking' out she had cut me off to say it had to be current and in the news this week. [It turned out the next day slaves were found in some part of England. Ha! In your face phone lady. Although I'm not sure I should be celebrating that just to be proved right.]

Eh...right...news this week?

I said something about the economy and public sector jobs. That stuff's always in the news and it must have been what she wanted to hear. I was told I'd get an email and to reply to it with the wording of my question by the next day.

I still dithered as to what my question should be about. I wanted it to be good enough for them not to withdraw the invitation, but crap enough for them not to make me ask it. It was a fine line. Something like 'what's your favourite type of pasta?' would have me bumped across, but something like 'Is Libya in danger of becoming the new Iraq?' might stand you a chance. It's provocative, snappy and current, the things they ask you for in the email. But also, if it was just a bit out there you might get the 'funny' question at the end. It was a minefield for a Hello Mum spectator like myself.

I did a bit of research and came across a blog of someone who had been to one after the leadership debate last year. That was useful information and calmed me a bit. I watched the news and researched current news stories on tinternet. Heck, I even watched The Daily Politics.

If you've ever seen Question Time you'll know there's sometimes a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and Dimbleby will often bounce it back to the questioner and get their views. For that reason I stayed away from the economy, the euro and the strikes. What if I did get picked and what if Dimbleby asked me something really really hard? On national television! Oh die! So instead I went for the electoral boundary changes that had just been announced that day. That's topical, (relatively) interesting and affects the whole country (or will once Scotland and Wales have their new constituencies announced). But again I was back to the words in the email about being provocative. I tried to make my question as unprovocative as possible: who are the real winners and losers of the proposed electoral boundary changes?

I could have asked something implying the Liberal Democrats shot themselves in the foot or something about the boundary commission effectively gerrymandering Conservative wins. That's fairly provocative. I emailed it off. And then practised the wording every so often before Thursday. Well, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. So they say.

I arrived up in Derry that afternoon. Turns out Richard and Rebecca live just around the corner from where it was filmed so got to hang out with them and even walk across the Peace Bridge. Twice.

We were told to be there between 6.00pm and 6.30pm and as I arrived I saw what can only be described as a cross-section of society standing outside the doors. There was every type of person imaginable. Old, young, student, professional, weirdo, normoe. You name it, they were there. (For reference, I fall under the young normoe category.)

We were taken through our security checks and what not and then given a card to write our second question on. The woman reassured me that you would know before the programme began if you were one of the chosen ones. They even had it printed on the card; clearly I wasn't the only one who’s ever had a panic.

I sat down with the people in front of me in the queue. More of their people arrived and as they hadn't been much craic up to that point, I left them room and switched seats. The new people were lovely and were going through the same sort of anguish I was as to whether your question might be picked out. We sat there for the guts of an hour, and they were really good craic while we waited.

It soon became apparent heads were turning to the door we came in and sure enough, there he was, the man himself, His Right Honourable Sir Lord David Dimbleby of Televisionland! He made his way through the room and came to a microphone at the front. He ran through what would happen next (we'd be taken through and with a mock panel made up from audience members do a mini QT), the panel (who's who) and how the recording actually works (no stopping, no editing and no retakes - not the complexities of satellites and who actually gets to press 'record'). Also, if you want to speak, raise your hand and keep it there until you are called on, otherwise he’ll assume you don’t want to speak anymore. He also said that it helps the look of the whole thing if you don’t keep your hand up while speaking. Something our audience didn’t always manage.

He was very charming and personable in the preamble.

The cards for the second question were collected and from what I gathered, they choose the questions based on the popularity of the topics people ask about. Then from each of those topics a question is picked out, presumably based on the snappiness factor, but also checked for balance against other potential questioners. After hearing about six questions would be picked for the programme, I looked round the room. We guestimated there were 150 there so you'd have to be really unlucky to have yours chosen. Or you know, lucky if you’re that way inclined.

We were told they'd seat people from the front row, so if you wanted a front row seat get to the door. All the keenos charged. Me and my new friends hung back and bit and got mid-queue. Perfect we decided. Not back row uninvolved, not front row eager beaver.

Part 2, the actual programme, tomorrow. You can watch the programme still on iPlayer here if you're keen. If not...well I'm still going to tell you about it tomorrow.