Being on Question Time is worth all the frayed nerves

Appearing on Question Time never gets any easier. I know of regular panellists far more robust and experienced than I am who claim to feel a little bit unwell whenever they hear the opening theme, even from the safety of their living rooms.

That ominous piece of music serves as a reminder that you are about to be grilled – as I was last Thursday – not just by the host of the programme, David Dimbleby, but by a live studio audience who expect direct answers to the questions which they are about to ask you in front of several million television viewers. There really is nowhere to hide.

Then there’s the Twitter chatter, with scores declaring they were definitely not going to watch with “this lot on” or even how they’d given up watching the programme entirely years ago. “Why is she on again?” “Who is it that she works for now?” “Why does she change jobs with such alarming regularity?”

I’m not writing any of this in a shameless bid for sympathy. Nobody forces you to go on television or to have a Twitter account. I’m merely chronicling the passion Question Time seems to evoke in a lot of people. And therein lies the answer to the question: “Well, why do you do it then?”

It is a privilege to be invited on a show which elicits this level of engagement from so many across the country.

At a time when we complain about people switching off from politics, being able to reach out to millions of viewers, generating conversation – both positive and negative, for there are enough incredibly kind messages, too, to balance out the negativity – is well worth the time spent preparing and fretting before the show, the grilling during it, and the long journey home afterwards.

Also, it is important to be taken out of our comfort zone every now and then. This is particularly true of those of us who work in the media or in politics, whose lives seem to be consumed by the news cycle. Are we really doing enough to provide a clear narrative or are we becoming a part of the confusion around the biggest stories of the day?

The first question of the night from an audience member on whether a two-year interim deal and a bill for £20billion is really what Brexit supporters voted for, for example, served as a reminder of just how miserably the Government had failed to prepare the nation for what appears now to be a fairly inevitable consequence of an interim period. Could it have done more to get the message across?

Then there are the experiences that stay with you.

I’ll never forget the kindness of Andy Burnham as he whispered “Well done!” to a rather nervous me at the end of my first appearance, the refusal of a larger-than-life Tory grandee to sign the release form because the contract was “badly written” and, on one occasion, a collective “Ah!” from the live audience as the producers slipped a cushion under me to bring me up to the level of my fellow panellists.

So it doesn’t get any easier, but being given a seat at that table means being entrusted to represent the views of a section of the population whose world view one shares, which is an honour. Why should it be easy? FOLLOW Dia Chakravarty on Twitter @DiaChakravarty;

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