BBC Question Time isn't what it once was. But the format is worth defending
This week marks the 40th anniversary of BBC1’s Question Time. It is clear what the programme’s failings are, but as it comes under growing attack we should remember there is also much to celebrate.
First, the failings. Question Time has had two great presenters: Robin Day and David Dimbleby. Day presented it for nearly ten years, leaving in 1989. Dimbleby chaired it for longer, for almost 25 years, from 1994 to 2018. Both were a hard act to follow. Peter Sissons never succeeded in replacing Day, and Fiona Bruce, though she’s had her moments, is no Dimbleby. This is a serious problem for any flagship programme which has been around for decades, and it’s not clear that the BBC knows how to solve it.
Secondly, and perhaps more seriously, the programme has been dumbed down. There was a time when Question Time had real authority, because of the guests. Now it doesn’t. For the same reason. In its first five programmes guests included big beasts of British politics like Michael Foot, Jo Grimond, Peter Shore, Michael Heseltine and Enoch Powell, trade unionists like Arthur Scargill and Clive Jenkins, and writers like Edna O’Brien and John Mortimer. Formidable names.
In the last five programmes there have been a few leading politicians: Liz Truss, Caroline Flint, Louise Haigh, Kwasi Kwarteng, Ian Blackford, Layla Moran and Lord Falconer. I don’t wish to be unkind but the contrast is telling. They are simply not in the same league as the class of ’79. This is partly because of the dramatic decline of Labour, the SNP and Lib Dems. As this week’s party conference showed, the Labour Shadow Cabinet is the most mediocre since the war. They may soon be elected but you wouldn’t want to spend an hour in the company of any of them. And how many Conservative ministers would compare with Heseltine or Powell, in the longevity of their careers or their intellectual hinterland?
The biggest change, though, is the disappearance of leading writers and trade union leaders. Instead, we have three new categories: journalists, comedians and celebrities. The biggest change is in the journalists. In 1979 there were journalists like Paul Johnson, Ann Leslie and Conor Cruise O’Brien, veterans who had seen much of the world and were serious thinkers. I have a lot of time for Tom Newton Dunn and Iain Dale, two of the liveliest political commentators around, but Ayesha Hazarika and Ash Sarkar are not intellectuals you could compare with Johnson and O’Brien. In the 1970s Johnson had published six history books and two works of contemporary history; O’Brien wrote books on subjects from Camus and political violence to the history of Ireland. These were serious people with important things to say.
Why, then, stand up for Question Time ? Above all, because it gives a voice to ordinary people. Look through social media or listen to BBC news programmes and what you increasingly hear, whether on Brexit or prorogation, is a small group of insiders speaking with one voice. You would think that everyone is a Remainer, that all right-thinking people despise the Prime Minister and his government. Watch Question Time and you realise that many people are still Leavers, baffled by the failure of Parliament, judges and the mainstream media to reflect their views.
Instead of treating Emily Thornberry, Shami Chakrabarti and Barry Gardiner with the piety they receive on the Today programme, Newsnight and Channel 4 News , the Question Time audience howl them down with laughter and derision. It is like something from an 18 th- century caricature. Did you see Jon Snow’s interview with Baroness Chakrabarti last night when they spent the opening minutes of the interview discussing whether “Jon” should be allowed to call her “Shami”? The chumminess was ridiculous. Compare it to Emily Thornberry’s most recent appearance on Question Time when her attempt to explain Labour’s Brexit policy was received with gales of laughter. There is something very British about politicians being called to account by members of the public in a raucous, no-holds-barred forum.
Finally, Question Time takes on the big issues of the day. It is topical but not just political. The great cultural divides of our time are openly discussed. Often it is the audience who have their fingers on the pulse and tell politicians and journalists from the Westminster bubble what is on their minds.
There is a way forward for Question Time: a new presenter, smarter guests, zero tolerance towards voguish minor celebrities and Novara Media. I wish the programme well if it changes. Happy 40th birthday.
