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. |
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.
2 comments:
The BBC mission is to inform, educate and entertain... or something to that effect at ay rate. I wonder if you have adopted this as your personal mission Tina? I really enjoyed this post and am looking forward to the next. Will you be teaching me a new word in the next one? In case you are wondering, I didn't know swithered was a word. Incidentally, my computer is pretty sure it isn't, but I believe you.
Glad you liked it! It was brilliant to see done!
Re. swithered. I did have a Sam Seaborn-esque panic because it's something my mum says ('you're acting like a nervous hoolilia') but a tinternet search tells me it's (possibly) a Scots word meaning to hesitate, worry or be in a state of confusion. Mum would typically say 'swithered and swayed' over a decision.
Of course it wouldn't be the first time the internets has been wrong...or my mother for that matter!
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