BBC News announces plans for General Election Special TV programmes
BBC News will place ‘the audience and the choice’ at the heart of its prime time TV coverage of the General Election.
Published: 8 May 2017
It is firmly in the public interest for audiences to hear from those seeking election. We know they connect with these formats because they are a public moment to focus on and audience members from all across the country get the chance to ask politicians their own questions.
The TV specials will see the public questioning the politicians on substantive issues of policy that matter to them in a series of programmes from across the country including London, Edinburgh, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Swansea, Belfast and Manchester.
David Dimbleby will host two Question Time Specials, in which leaders will face audience questions consecutively. The first will be with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn and the second with Tim Farron and Nicola Sturgeon. There will be a live BBC Election Debate hosted by Mishal Husain and a Radio 1 Newsbeat debate with a young audience hosted by Tina Daheley. Andrew Neil will conduct a series of interviews with the leaders in prime time.
There will be more than ten hours of prime time TV programmes and formats for audiences to engage with the election choices.
Jonathan Munro, Head of BBC Newsgathering says: “We have an exciting line up of special programmes over the General Election period. We’ve made the time to discuss the issues in our schedules, and got the right mix of people on air so they will reach out to all audiences who trust our impartial approach to news.
“Our plans include bringing Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn in front of the same Question Time audience on the same night to be quizzed by the public.
“It is firmly in the public interest for audiences to hear from those seeking election. We know they connect with these formats because they are a public moment to focus on and audience members from all across the country get the chance to ask politicians their own questions.”
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Audience participation
On Wednesday 31 May, Mishal Husain will moderate The BBC Election Debate to be broadcast live on BBC One between 7.30-9pm, from Cambridge. It will feature a seven-way podium debate on the substantive issues by senior Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Green Party and UKIP spokespeople.
On Friday 2 June, David Dimbleby will host a prime time Question Time Leader Special with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn live on BBC One from York. Then on Sunday 4 June, Dimbleby will chair a second Question Time Leader Special from Edinburgh with Tim Farron and Nicola Sturgeon live on BBC One. The feedback from 2015 was this format was incredibly popular with audiences and it was widely seen as a key moment of the election campaign. Question Time will also be devoting a whole programme to the election in Northern Ireland.
The BBC will broadcast two further programmes on Sunday 4 June. Election Questions to Leanne Wood from Swansea on BBC One in Wales at 10.30-11pm then at 11-11.30pm in England. And Election Questions to Paul Nuttall will come from Bristol on BBC One at 10.30-11pm in England then at 11-11.30pm Wales.
The final BBC debate before the election will be a Newsbeat Youth debate on Tuesday 6 June. It will be with an audience of 18-34 year olds hosted by Tina Daheley in Manchester featuring leading Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Plaid, Green and UKIP politicians. It will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 and the BBC News Channel at 8.30pm, then on BBC One at 10.40pm.
In addition we will host 12 debates across the English regions, as well as devolved party debates in the Nations.
Other key TV highlights
BBC One and Two will also transmit a series of key interviews to scrutinise the main issues over the course of next six weeks.
Throughout the week of 22 May, BBC One will air a series of prime time Andrew Neil Interviews at 7pm. They will be one to one interviews with Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Tim Farron, Paul Nuttall and Nicola Sturgeon. A sixth interview with Leanne Wood will air on BBC One in Wales.
Following the interview with the Prime Minister on 30 April, The Andrew Marr Show will interview the other party leaders during the course of the campaign. Newsnight will be joining forces with Newsbeat to mount a debate on Britain’s great generational divide. BBC News will also invite politicians from a range of parties onto various panels for news programmes that are part of the daily BBC output.
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn will also each be interviewed on The One Show during the campaign to find out about the person behind the politics. Theresa May and her husband, Philip, will be interviewed on Tuesday, May 9.
Reality Check - the BBC’s fact-checking service - has a new weekly slot on the Sunday News At Ten bulletins presented by Steph McGovern.
As previously announced, on 8 June the General Election Results Night Special will be led by David Dimbleby with Mishal Husain, Emily Maitlis and Jeremy Vine. Huw Edwards will take over in the morning as lead presenter guiding the audience through the day’s main events, including the formation of a new government. He will also present the evening bulletin. Andrew Neil will take over from Mishal Husain. BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland will have their own results programmes.
On results day, 9 June, a final Question Time Election Special will be live on BBC One, 8.30-9.30pm from London.
Notes to Editors
- In addition, BBC News will continue to provide reliable daily news coverage of the key stories, latest developments and expert analysis of the General Election across its TV, Radio and online services.
