Question Time & The BNP

Yes, it isn't as big as you imagine.

Obviously.

It was only fair they allowed Nick Griffin on, since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the disgusting homophobic, anti-semitic president of Iran who, thankfully, most young Iranians would now be glad to see the back of) was allowed to cast a shadow over Christmas day last year by giving an alternative speech on Channel 4. You can't have one rule for one and another rule for another.

I don't buy this idea that having the BNP on Question Time could turn people racist, either. It's like people who whinge that gay soap kisses might turn people gay. A person is either racist or they're not.

I also think it was hugely irresponsible of those protestors to terrorise the BBC. I'm shocked that there weren't more arrests really.

I'd have chanted with anyone outisde TVC (for or against) if they hugged me.
(wrong forum)

Make sure you take some Dettol wet wipes!

I think the audience for QT is always around the 100 mark and is carefully selected to be representative of the electorate with a mix of political alliance, race, sex etc. I have to say there didn't seem to be much support for the BNP in the audience - but maybe that was the point.

I'm not sure which studio they were in, I'd guess it would be TC3 or 4. Certainly the shots the Ten showed of Nick Griffin approaching the stage and taking his seat showed a largeish production studio with a smallish audience poked into it. QT is a Mentorn Oxford production and by the look of it, they have a standard modular set which they adapt to fit wherever they are producing the programme that week. For them to be in a proper production studio is quite unusual and actually I can't remember the last time they were in a studio. The credits gave Arqiva an OB Facilities shout and I asked during Metropol's live chat session whether they'd used the studio as a four-waller along with Arqiva's truck. Someone confirmed that is exactly what they'd done. This is fairly unusual for Television Centre, I think. The only time the studios have been recently used as four wallers AFAIK is when there were more HD productions booked than there were HD facilities available. Later with Jools Holland certainly came from a truck for a series or two before they went live and moved into TC1. Subsequently their old usual studio has been converted to HD AIUI. Maybe Mentorn decided that they may as well use their usual truck - maybe they felt comfortable in it, maybe Arqiva have some sort of exclusive facilities deal with them preventing QT from using anyone elses facilities...

It'll be interesting to see the overnights today for that edition of the programme. The QT at the height of the Expenses scandal got 3.8m viewers I think - I feel sure that this edition will get many more.

Incidentally, it's really difficult to type Arqiva without automatically typing a 'u' after the 'q'...

I always think its hilarious that so-called anti-fascists demonstrate in attempt to block the views of a political party. Vile or not, nobody has any right to say that they cannot air their views peacefully (if Griffin said to go out and shoot a few foreigners that would be a different matter), as the democratic process will ensure that they never gain any meaningful power.

Personally I think the Respect party is vile... but not many people would support me if I tried to ban it (even though it is as far to the left as the BNP is to the right), and indeed I do not believe it should be banned. Although Galloway should be barred from public office for inciting crime (assasination of TB).

To cut to the chase, well done to the BBC for standing their ground.

Looks like they narrowed the audience area with black cloth so they were all in a long strip rather than the whole way across the studio


Probably because they'd already paid for it and didn't have to shell out more. Question Time usually gets to air via Millbank (it's recorded live but they edit it to clean up any problems) for some reason. The truck was probably routed straight out to Millbank and so they wouldn't have needed any other facilities at TVC

According to Broadcast, Question Time pulled in 8.3m viewers, with 52.4% of total viewing.

More than Strictly. Wow.

According to The Times online they used Studio 6 for the programme. I also read on one of the sites (possibly Times) that the episode was due to be recorded on location until the local authorities objected. This is possibly why the OB facilities were still used, assuming they had been booked prior to the venue change.

I believe that Arqiva have the facilities contract for the whole run of Question Time.

As a result I suspect Mentorn have guaranteed a fixed number of shows, and would have to pay Arqiva whether they used Arqiva or BBC Studio faclities last night. Therefore there would be no financial sense in paying Arqiva and using BBC facilities. Given the circumstances I suspect that BBC Studios gave them a 4-wall rate.

It may also have had the benefit that the production team are very familiar with the Arqiva set-up and were keen to retain as much familiarity in how such a high profile show was being made. (The fewer differences to normal the better)

Given that the show was apparently originally proposed to be an OB from Hull, until that location declined to host the show, I suspect the decision was taken to mount the show at TVC for security reasons at quite short notice. Sections of the police are used to the layout of TV Centre (they are often on-site to check prior to high profile politicians appearong on shows like The Andrew Marr Show or Newsnight) and the security provisions and access points are well known to them.

My two cents - I didn't watch all of it, maybe half but I felt that Griffin was being shouted down the whole time. I have absolutely no time for his views, but I felt that the moderator should have allowed him more room to express his views uninterrupted for all of us to see just how ridiculous his opinions are.

I find this programme annoying anyway, the audience clap to every single sentence.