14/07/2012 Newswatch

Welcome to the programme. Later: Should Andy Murray's semifinal

victory have displaced the local news?

For us, question time has been a staple of the BBC schedule for many

years. The format is simple. A studio audience puts questions

towards a panel, typically containing a politician and two

orders. One of last week's programme was John Leyden,

previously known as Johnny Rotten. You do agree that a crime has been

committed it? The former punk rocker's appearance divided viewers.

This Dior was less amused: -- He had to go. This isn't the first

time Question Time guests have aroused controversy. Pop stars have

appeared before. As have comedians. They are allowed to strike. And I

thought... Newspaper journalists. The other most disloyal of

creatures ever. And the winners of reality TV shows. I do not have a

�2 million house. She wielded a Again, others disagreed, such as

We were here four years ago at... What about the audience? Some

viewers have wondered how it is selected. This view work is unhappy

Achieving balance in the audience has been the goal of question time

since it started. To face the public's questions, I enjoyed by

the executive producer of Question Time. What was the thinking behind

putting Johnny Brighton on the programme? The sex Pistols and

Johnny Rotten had legendary status. A lot of their audience will

remember that. We thought it would be quite good to get him on on the

programme made up to the Queen's Jubilee. We found that he was a big

fan of Question Time it could not make it that week. We talked about

may be getting him and for another show and we look -- looked at dates.

Another view was says the BBC likes provocative questions and extreme

guests. You like stirring things up. Was Johnny Rotten almost too well-

behaved for your biking? I think some of the people who have

criticised his performance almost wanted him to give us a torrent and

volley of abuse and have me fired. Because they didn't get that, they

were disappointed. You do have pop stars and people from reality shows.

Is that designed to attract a younger audience? It is designed to

broaden the appeal of the programme as much as possible. What Question

Time has managed to do over the years, particularly as we went to a

fifth panellist on the show, is to broaden the franchise. There was a

feeling it was becoming too much of a prisoner of Westminster. If it

was just dominated by politicians all the time, it was largely

beginning to exclude a large part of the audience. The beauty of

Question Time is that it does bring in a much broader audience and

shines a light on what is going on at Westminster. I think having

these independent, freewheeling, outspoken people does help to

broaden the franchise in that sense. Is it the danger that sometimes

they may not be as well-informed as your average member? Undoubtedly

that can happen. Everybody who comes on the programme has been

stowed -- spoken to at length by a team to find out if they know

enough about the stories of the day. On this occasion, Johnny Rotten on

three separate occasions, came out with really good points. He had

things to say about the libel scandal. He had a very pretty --

provocative thing to say about the legalisation of drugs. We have had

other people on whom have had the nerve to get to them, which is

understandable. One political question from this dealer. He wants

to know why you, in the days of the collision, why did give a separate

slot for by the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. He argues that a

unbalances things. We are all on different territory with the

coalition government. The point is the next election will be fought by

the three parties individually. They are still very separate

parties. What we tend to do, as we did last week, is we have a

minister on who is actually a Liberal Democrat and we will seek

to have a more independent, free- thinking Conservative backbencher.

We do not seek to put on a Lib Dem minister and a Conservative

minister. We will put on a minister from one of the party's and a

backbencher from one of the other parties. I think if we did not do

that we would be in serious danger of on the representing one of the

major political parties in the country. And you heard a viewer

complained about rows of left wing people in the audience. Had you

choose the audience? We do achieve balance. Every member of the

audience is spoken to by the research team and their voting

intentions are recorded. The past voting record is also recorded.

They are compiled with all that in mind. We have a fair proportion of

all parties. Thank you. What else has the attention of BBC

News for viewers this week? Wimbledon officio murders can show

they hope of a British men's winner for another year.

After the disappointment came the painful public display of that

disappointment. The support has been incredible.

But before the figure at the triumph and tears, here is a

parting shot from one dealer and the decision to show his semifinal

on BBC One instead of the scheduled The complaints continued beyond the

end of the tournament, with this of It has been a week of technical

problems for the BBC's internet services. A major technical issue

meant the side went down temporarily on Wednesday evening.

For a couple of days, the news website's selection of the day's

most popular stories actually shared material that was a month

The BBC apologised for the problem, which was fixed by Thursday.

Finally, it was goodbye this week to one bastion of the BBC News. Up

until now it was the home of the BBC World news service. The service,

which has programmes in 28 languages, has been broadcast from

the building since 1941. The BBC is now moving out and into a new

extension of Broadcasting House. We are also moving their after next

week. This was the final sign-off from Bush House on Thursday.

the World Service and the news goes on, just not from here. From Bush

House, that's the BBC News. This UN in-out asked to say: -- This They