Appleby Town Council were delighted to host BBC Radio 4’s ‘Any Questions?’ in the Public Hall on Friday, 14th March.  The political debate show, which was first broadcast in 1948, goes out live on Friday evenings at 8pm. It is broadcast from a different location each week and Appleby’s Public Hall had previously hosted the programme 50 years ago, in either 1975 or 1976.

The programme is presented by Alex Forsyth and the panel in Appleby consisted of the Security Minister Dan Jarvis MP, the General Secretary of the National Education Union Daniel Kebede, the Conservative MP John Lamont and the political journalist Anne McElvoy.

Previous presenters of the show include David Jacobs who presented the programme for 17 years and Jonathan Dimbleby who stepped down in 2019 after 32 years.

Almost 200 people turned out to watch the programme being broadcast, which was fascinating to see.  Audience members were asked to fill out question cards on arrival, which the production team then reviewed and chose the questions to present to the panel.  The producer said that there were so many question cards submitted by the audience, they had covered three tables and it had been very hard for the production team to pick out the questions to ask. Appleby Mayor, Councillor Pamela Davidson opened the evening by welcoming everyone to the Public Hall and handed over to BBC Radio Cumbria journalist John Bowness who explained the proceedings for the evening, before the show went out live.

The questions chosen to ask the panel members were very varied and included:

  • How do the panel think we can change people’s attitudes to litter?
  • Do the panel agree with the PM that the UK troops should be sent to Ukraine for peace keeping?
  • With the recent announcement to abolish NHS England, when might patients across Cumbria feel any benefits and what are they likely to be?
  • Are welfare cuts the biggest challenge to the unity of the Labour party since the election?
  • Should we all be boycotting American Goods?
  • Have you ever committed a nature faux-pas on social media?

Pamela Davidson, Mayor of Appleby said “I have been listening to Any Questions? for a long time and it was really interesting to see what went on behind the scenes to make the programme. On behalf of Appleby Council and its residents, I would like to say a very big thank you to the Any Questions? team and the panellists for taking the time to come to Appleby for what was a very enjoyable evening.”

Alex Forsyth, the presenter commented “Having such an active audience, who got involved and shared their feelings throughout the programme, made it a really enjoyable show. A thank you to members of the panel as it is not easy to go on a live programme and be subject to questions with minimal preparation time. Also, thank you to the team at the Public Hall for all their hard work, to help make the show run so smoothly. Any Questions? can ask a lot of the venue but the team made the BBC feel very welcome.”

If you missed the programme and would like to listen, please visit BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028v4v

Press Release
18th March 2025
Town Clerk: Sue Gilbertson