Ticket No. 30 - My Question Time Experience - Part 2

Well, neither of my questions were selected in the end. Which was, of course, true for the vast majority of those present.

I arrived at the venue for 6 - as instructed - and we went through security (bag searches and frisked with hand-held metal detectors) before being checked off and given a card on which to submit the second question. Last night's venue was Bristol's City Academy - established under the Tony Blair's Academy programme - the  set was in the school theatre and the holding area was the school canteen.

On arrival, the BBC news was playing on a couple of large screens - but this was changed to ITV and then Channel 4 news as time progressed. I think they may have wanted us to be as up to date as possible prior to the programme!

After a while, David Dimbleby took to the microphone to give us a pep talk on the programme, some do's and don'ts and to encourage us to be as interactive as possible. After a bit more waiting, we went through to the theatre and took our seats.

The next stage involved one of the production team hosting a mock version of the show with some members of the audience. This was to ensure sound levels, camera angles, and microphone booms were all working and in the right positions. It also helped relax the audience and get them into the swing of things. Midway through this, the names of those whose questions were submitted were announced, their seating positions identified so that the cameras and mics could get to them seamlessly in the programme.

Next, it was time to move on to the programme itself: another pep talk from David Dimbleby (and a check if there were any men with long hair, to save him calling a lady and making a huge faux pas!) and then it was time for the programme.

The panel* were introduced, the warm up question was taken (another chance to test mic levels) and for the panel to exchange some banter with each other and the host. Then it was time for the series business: roll credits!

A couple of things surprised me about the programme: first, the questioners were not positioned, or re-positioned specifically for the cameras. Everyone who asked questions asked them from the seat they sat in when they entered the auditorium.

Secondly, the programme was filmed in one complete take. Whilst I had never thought that the panelist were cut, I always assumed there was some cutting involved in the posing of the questions. In his pep talk, David Dimbleby did suggest that, should a questioner completely fluff a question there may be some editing, but other than that, what you see is what was recorded.

And so at around 9.40 the evening was over and the recording was in the bag ready for broadcast less than an hour later. An entertaining evening and enjoyable, even if neither of my questions was asked!

Oh, and the second of my submitted questions?:

"Is the reported dropping of the Draft Data Communications Bill a victory for civil liberties and Parliament or for 'Criminals, Terrorists and Paedophiles'?"

I'll leave that one for you to answer. You can read the first question I submitted in this post.

Andrew

*Will Self, Lord Karan Bilimoria (a late replacement for James Harding who had just resigned as editor of The Times), Justine Greening MP, Stella Creasy MP and Peter Hitchins. And no Lib Dem, again...

In which the widow comes over a bit Daily Mail

The BBC is one of this country's greatest institutions. Every so often, though, it does something makes me come over a bit Daily Mail. 

There are two main areas in which it manages to achieve this. Firstly, BBC Three's programming leaves me, for the most part, baffled and wondering whether it is worth spending the licence fee on. There, however, I am outside the target demographic and would need to step back and look at things in the round in order to make an objective judgement.

The second area is in the reporting of economic news and statistics. This sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, with a tendency for there to be a focus on the negative rather than the positive when such news is mixed (as is so often the way with economic indicators).

There was an example of this a few months ago when some government borrowing figures were released. Two of the three measures showed movement in a positive direction whilst one didn't meet expectations... Guess which one led the article? Yep, the negative news was the headline news.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the BBC or other news organisations should pretend that everything in the garden is rosy - we all know it's not. I'm not suggesting that bad news should be buried either. But in cases like the above a more neutral approach should have been adopted.

They annoyed me again this week when the unemployment figures were announced. Now, again, I don't want to pretend that unemployment levels aren't a concern - they are. And the headline figures disguise a lot of changes in the Labour market - particularly people working part-time or reduced hours when they would prefer to be in full time roles.

A drop in unemployment figures for the first quarter of the year - albeit a small drop and with qualifications - is good news. It also adds to a number of statistics which are at odds with the initial estimate of GDP growth of -0.2 for the same period. 

The internet is a visual medium and so BBC Online felt that the story needed to be illustrated. Rather than do so with a generic photo of a Job Centre sign, or something else similar, they chose a picture of a shop with closing down signs in it's window... 

Economically, it is all too easy for negative news to become a downward spiral and it's not as if there isn't enough of it around. Using negative images with positive stories is, I believe, unhelpful and disingenuous.

It may be that I over-react to these things but it does get my goat... If you're reading this BBC, sort it out!

Andrew

Mayday! Mayday!

Here's a real treat - a clip of classic comedy from Tony Hancock. This is from The Radio Ham in which his inane and surreal conversations with various Hams around the world are interrupted by a Mayday call...

Don't say I'm not good to you... 

Andrew

The 1,000,000 book give-away

Life as a blogger can be strange. Sometimes, you're brimming over with ideas - which you may or may not manage to convert to a post - and at other times inspirations seems miles away. Most of the time you can manage to sustain things under their own momentum, even if you have to force yourself to post now and again.

Occasionally, though, you see something and you just have to post. This post from the other day was one such example.Tonight's post is another.

Regular visitors will know that I enjoy reading and regularly post book reviews here. Reading opens the mind to new ideas and fresh worlds. It provides a place of escape and a window on the world, a place of reflection and illumination.

Every year World Book Day (March 3rd in the UK) seeks to encourage kids to find the pleasures of reading and to provide access to their own books, primarily through activities in Schools. 

This year, the following Saturday has been designated World Book Night with an ambitious project to distribute 1,000,000 books to adults across the country and coverage on BBC2. Not only that but individual applications are being invited to be a distributor of these books. 20,000 people will have the task (privilege) of passing on the pleasure of books.

25 titles will be given away; from Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's to Ben MacIntyre's Agent ZigZag, Philip Pullman's Northern Lights to Yann Martell's Life of Pi. The complete shortlist covers a wide range of genres and organisers hope that books will be introduced to people who wouldn't consider themselves as readers.

I know of various towns and citries which have trialed such projects themselves - but the scale and ambition of this scheme is to be much admired. I've decided I'm going to apply to be a book giver. If you too love books and are intrigued by the project, why don't you too?

Andrew

P.S. Internationally, World Book Day is promoted by UNESCO and occurs on April 23rd.

100 Iconic Objects... in just 5 minutes

I blogged here about the Radio 4 series "A History of the World in a Hundred Objects". This landmark series told the history of humankind through a selection of objects housed in the British Museum. Today, the last episode was broadcast, although I still have a couple of weeks worth to catch up on.

Neil MacGregor manages to make each episode informative without being too heavy or too worthy. His tone is light and conversation with additional insights provided by a range of experts or public figures with a particular perspective to share.

Episodes can be found in the Apple iTunes Store or downloaded from the BBC MicroSite. In the meantime, here's a video of all 100 objects.

Andrew

Proud of the BBC

The BBC comes in for a lot of stick from certain quarters - step forward, The Daily Mail - but is, in reality, a fantastic institution and one of which we should be collectively proud.

Of course, not everything the BBC does is to my taste or to my liking. There are, undoubtedly, areas it could reduce expenditure on and savings it could make - and not only because of current economic conditions. 

Even so, at c.£12 a month, though, it represents fantastic value for money, particularly in comparison with with its Cable and Satellite competitors. It also represents good value compared to other countries, which is illustrated on this page.

Mitch Benn, one of the stars of The Now Show on Radio 4 (and occasionally BBC1's Watchdog) has written this tribute:

You can see more of Mitch Benn's work on The Now Show microsite and on his You Tube channel and you can follow him on Twitter. 

Andrew