BLACKBURN became the centre of political debate on Thursday night, when the BBC’s long-running current affairs show Question Time came to the town. Hannah Al-Othman was one of the audience members who applied to take part as five leading political figures were quizzed on a variety of topical issues.

THINGS became heated at King George’s Hall when a BBC camera crew dropped by to film the latest Question Time show.

And while the programme may now be into its 33rd year - the debate in Blackburn showed no signs of cooling down.

The panel was made up of Conservative MP Margot James, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander MP, Liberal Democrat Lord Oakeshott, the Daily Mail columnist A. N. Wilson, and Salma Yaqoob, a former leader of George Galloway’s Respect party.

The panels were grilled by the enthusiastic audience on a variety of issues including GPs and the NHS, the lobbying industry, and fracking - a controversial way of extracting natural gas.

But the most contentious topic of the night was segregation in faith schools, with two Blackburn residents, Susan Wolsthenholme, 39, and Joanna Lavelle asking questions related to the subject.

The panelists came back with a variety of responses, and voiced a range of opinions, but overall both the experts and the audience seemed to be in favour of integrating schools.

After the show Joanna said: “I’m Blackburn born and I’m saddened to see a divided community. I think people feel nervous about it. The debate needs to happen and carry on.”

And Susan said: “I was pleased that my question opened debate, but I’m sorry that we weren’t able to debate it for longer. I’m surprised that there wasn’t more debate.”

And audience member Medina Patel, 34, also wished there had been more time to discuss the issue.

She said: “I really enjoyed the experience, but I would have liked to have had a chance to express my views because I didn’t agree with what was said about divided communities and faith schools.”

The whole night had kicked off hours earlier with audience members being ushered in to the bar to prepare their questions over tea and biscuits.

When the show’s veteran host David Dimbleby appeared in the room the gathered guests were given the opportunity to ask questions of the presenter before filming began, and how the programme chose its panelists, locations, questions, and audiences were the hot topics on everyone’s lips.

Once the audience had filed into the hall, five lucky members were invited to take the place of the panelists on the stage to hold a pratice debate, allowing the producers to test the sound and lighting.

One of the panelists, Fatima Chandi, 33, a Police Link Workers from Blackburn, said: “It was nerve-racking but really exciting because I’m a big fan of the programme.

“I know it was just a practice, but I felt priviledged to be chosen.”

Filming went smoothly on the night, but after the hour-long debate was filmed, Question Time’s producers then had their work cut out as they had just 60 minutes to get the whole programme ready to be broadcast to the nation Carlo Divito, 48, who attended with his wife Nicola, 42. The couple live in St Anne’s now, but Carlo was born in Blackburn.

He said: “I first came to King George’s Hall to see a band when I was 18, so it’s nice to be back here for something like this and be part of the programme.

“We both take a great interest in politics and issues of the day. We have teenage children and a lot of things might affect them.”

The Divitos only found they had been selected for Thursday’s programme on Tuesday evening.

Carlo said: “We’re big fans of Question Time so we were quite pleased when we were chosen. We were happy and excited to have the chance to comment in front of our peers.”

  • During David Dimbleby’s Q&A session before the show, the presenter made some jovial comments about King George’s Hall, and the salmon pink colour scheme.

But it was all taken in good humour by the audience, and afterwards by Blackburn Council.

Mr Dimbleby said that venues were chosen to represent a diverse spread of locations geographically, but that the organisers also had to bear in mind finding venues that were available on a Thursday night and inexpensive.

Mr Dimbleby said he did not think the Hall was expensive to hire, but then followed up with, ‘if it is its daylight robbery!’, which generated a few laughs from the audience.

Damian Talbot, Blackburn Council’s executive member for the Leisure, Culture & Young People, said: “We are pleased that the BBC chose to use King George’s Hall for Question Time.

“It is a fantastic venue. It is very well used and we work hard to make sure that it is well maintained.

“We are always willing to take on board people’s comments, and if the BBC would like to help out with some money then we may look again at the paint scheme!”