Friday 22 May 2015

Back to normal


"I'll get you, Butler!"

Given that astonishing pre-election Question Time, with its audience that gave a genuine foretaste of how the public would actually vote in the election - and which seemed so different to other episodes of Question Time, where the audience tend to sound like SWP activists on heat -...

...and given last week's Question Time, where a somewhat battered-by-events Nigel Farage received a fair hearing...

...it was perhaps reasonable to hope that BBC One's Question Time had finally turned a corner vis a vis its perennially strange, left-wing-sounding audiences.

Last night's Question Time, however, took us straight back to square one, without passing Go. 

It was as if the general election (where the Right took just over half of the UK vote) never happened.

So we'll obviously have to expect another five years of Biased BBC's much-loved Bunny la Roche and her lefty pals ruling the roost in the QT audience until, in late April 2020, another QT audience bucks the trend and boos Labour leader Andy Burnham (prompting general hilarity when he starts sweating and the mascara starts trickling down his cheeks).  

Sibling rivalry dictates, however, that Dimbleby Minor would have to go one better than Dimbleby Major, and tonight's Any Questions on Radio 4 showed than Jonathan's audience could offer us an even more 'traditional BBC studio audience' than big brother David.

There was a question about the BBC. Douglas Carswell said he thinks the BBC should shrink. "Boooooo!" crowed the audience. All the other panelists said that the BBC is simply spiffing. Far-left union leader Mark Serwotka said he actually wants the licence fee to be increased. "Hoooorah!" chorused the audience. 

Can't wait to hear what fun Anita Anand has with this tomorrow on Any Answers. 

3 comments:

  1. The leader's QT was always going to be an anomaly. It was clearly the result of when the producers make a real effort at balance, rather than try to rig the audience according to what they feel the political mood of the host area is. Lots of people were joking that audience management staff were sacked over it. Of course it's business as usual now, because the spotlight is off.

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  2. As posted on Biased BBC.
    My greyhounds love bunnies.
    Just like a Jack Russell "terminating" a rat:-)

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  3. 'Far-left union leader Mark Serwotka said he actually wants the licence fee to be increased. "Hoooorah!" chorused the audience'

    It's a shame Mandy Rice Davies is no longer with us; she seemed to have an apt insight into motivations.

    Mr. Serwotka clearly going the Marrakesh market route, whereby in the spirit of bargaining you pitch double and settle back to what it was anyway.

    They can set the 'fee' wherever they like. If it is for the calibre of service and content the BBC sees fit to produce, no thank you. Especially by compulsion.

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