About

Chris Mason presents Any Questions? from Portaferry

Any Questions? was first broadcast on Friday 12th October 1948; for the first eighteen months it was a West of England Home Service programme, run from Bristol. It moved to London in April 1950, but after 61 years in the capital, it returned to the production offices in Bristol in 2011. Any Questions? is broadcast live on Radio 4 on most Friday evenings of the year following the 8pm news. The programme is repeated on Saturday lunchtimes at 1.10pm, and is followed at 2pm by the Any Answers? phone-in which gives listeners a chance to join in the debate by calling or e-mailing Anita Anand.

The programme travels throughout the United Kingdom, and occasionally to Europe, at the invitation of local organisations. The audience submits questions on the day of the broadcast and these are then sifted by the producer who selects ten questions across a range of subjects. Normally, four to six of them are included in the actual broadcast. One of the stringent and unchanging rules of Any Questions? is that the panel never sees the questions in advance; the panellists hear them for the first time at the same moment the audience in the hall and at home does.

The programme has had four presenters in its history. Freddie Grisewood was the first, steering the programme until December 1967 when David Jacobs took over. David Jacobs was chairman until July 1983; John Timpson chaired the programme until July 1987 after which Jonathan Dimbleby took the chair from September that year until June 2019. The current presenter is the BBC Political Correspondent Chris Mason – he has been in the role since October 2019.

The most prolific panellist currently is the late Tony Benn, who first appeared in March 1951 and contributed around 80 times to the programme! Over the years, many figures of note have appeared as panellists, including most past and present leaders of the political parties. Every Prime Minister since Harold Wilson has appeared on Any Questions at some point in their political career! Panels also feature many distinguished figures from the worlds of the Arts, Science, Business, Law and other areas of public life.

Currently, around 1.5 million people listen to the programme each week, the majority of them hearing the Saturday lunchtime repeat. The programme has only rarely had to come off air - once through audience disruption, once as a result of sabotage by disaffected schoolboys, and once during the Suez crisis when a Parliamentary ruling was breached. More recently the programme had to be pulled off the air in April 2011 as a result of an unfortunate disruption to the trains which rendered three of the four panellists unable to reach the programme venue in County Durham. The programme was broadcast from a studio in London with panellists taking part from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tickets are limited!

Due to the ongoing pandemic we are currently limiting tickets in case this has to be a socially distanced audience with allocated seating. If, nearer the time, it is possibly to make more tickets available we will release further tickets. Please note that tickets will not be available until 7 January 2022. Tickets will also be limited to no more than 4 per person. All ticket holders will need to arrive between 6.30 and 7pm.

Covid status check

From the beginning of October 2021, following government recommendations and for the safety of all our attendees, every attendee over the age of 18 will be required to provide evidence of Covid status on arrival. All attendees must show one of the following:

Proof of full vaccination

Proof of a negative Lateral Flow Test taken within 24 hours

Proof of natural immunity

What to show to provide proof of your Covid status

All ticket holders aged 18 and over, will need to provide one of the following:

Proof of full vaccination - both doses received (A full 14 days must have passed since the final dose of Covid vaccine was received)

Proof of a negative Lateral Flow Test taken no more than 24 hours prior to attending the event

Proof of natural immunity shown by a positive PCR test result for Covid, within 180 days after the date of the positive test and after completion of isolation period

If you are resident in Northern Ireland

If you are resident in Northern Ireland, you can demonstrate your Covid status by doing one of the following:

Demonstrating proof of full vaccination by showing:

Your Covid Vaccination Card and photographic ID matching the name on your vaccination card.

A COVIDCert NI passport

Other government-issued proof of full vaccination and photographic ID matching the name on your vaccination card

Presenting receipt of a negative Lateral Flow Test result issued by text message or email

Presenting proof of a positive Covid PCR test, within 180 daysand following the isolation period

If you are NOT resident in Northern Ireland

If you are not resident in Northern Ireland you will need to show a government-issued proof of full vaccination and photographic ID matching the name on your vaccination card OR the EU Digital Covid Certificate.

If you have not been fully vaccinated you will need to provide a negative Lateral Flow Test result taken within 24 hours (as detailed above) or evidence of a positive PCR result (as above) within the last six months and after the isolation period.

How to get a Lateral Flow Test

Lateral Flow Tests can be obtained by anyone who requires them, free of charge, and can be ordered online for free delivery to your home.

Order tests from the Gov.uk website.