BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? Broadcast from Melksham

A packed Assembly Hall was the venue for the broadcasting of the BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? on Friday night, 7th July.

Presented by the BBC’s political correspondent, Alex Forsyth, local residents had the chance to put their questions to a panel made up of Thangam Debbonaire, Labour MP and the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons; Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat MP and party spokesperson for defence; John Glen, Conservative MP and Chief Executive to the Treasury, and businesswoman Katherine Bennett CBE.

The panel answered questions on topics including NHS dentistry, the closure of railway station ticket offices and the conflict in Ukraine. Local residents were chosen to put their questions forward live on air to the panel, who had not seen the questions in advance.

The chair of Melksham & District Historical Society, Paul Carter, sparked a lively debate following his question – ‘At which point should a story that might interest the public become a story in the public interest?’. Further discussion was had when another resident asked ‘I failed to find an NHS dentist in Melksham today, is NHS dentistry dead?’

Town councillor Graham Ellis, who asked his question on the closure of staffed railway station ticket offices said, “It was good to see such a vibrant audience in the Melksham Assembly Hall.  A steady flow of local and regional residents dropped questions into a box at the front of the hall, and I was delighted to be one of just five selected to ask mine on national radio. The BBC are utterly professional at this and make their contributors feel at ease, and it was an exciting thing to do.”

Two of Melksham’s questions – availability of dentists and the closure of railway station ticket offices – were selected for BBC Radio 4’s follow up programme, Any Answers? which was broadcast the following day.

Graham Ellis added, “It was really good to have Any Questions here in Melksham, and to have an Assembly Hall which houses such events – it’s really busy there; the following evening an even busier (and certainly nosier) event – the Seven Wonders tribute to Fleetwood Mac, had them dancing in the aisles!

“A massive thank you to our professional staff team and helpers who welcomed the BBC and made the whole evening (whole of both evenings) possible.  Both the BBC production team and the band said what a wonderful venue it is for them – and that’s due to the building itself but also and perhaps more importantly, the team that runs it.”

The recording of both programmes are available to listen to on BBC Sounds podcast at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtn5/episodes/downloads