Why Fiona Bruce needs to assert herself on Question Time and cut the chat

Fiona Bruce is the presenter of Question Time.

BBC TV’s Question Time lasts about 59 minutes. On February 28, Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner was on the panel.

There are always five panellists who speak on the questions as well as comments from the chair and numerous people in the audience.

In spite of these figures, somehow the impartial BBC managed to allow Barry Gardiner, by my calculations, to speak for 19 minutes in total (one third of the whole show), thereby reducing contributions from the other panellists and also reducing the number of questions asked.

The show’s TV director(s) need to (1) tell Fiona Bruce to curtail excessive contributions by panellists; (2) limit the time for any one question – the first Brexit question lasted over 25 minutes which probably cancelled another later question; (3) ask Fiona (as a seasoned news-reader) not to drop her voice when speaking to panellists next to her.

Viewers want to see and hear the panel’s opinions on four or five varied subjects in those valuable 59 minutes; not one panellist’s “monopolytics”.

Why Fiona Bruce needs to assert herself on Question Time and cut the chat – Yorkshire Post letters