A former Question Time audience member has revealed the advice Fiona Bruce gives audience members in advance of the show. Ted Lasso star Mark Kempner from Cheltenham joined the audience when the show was broadcast from the Gloucestershire town on May 29 last year. The panellists on the night were the Secretary of State for transport Heidi Alexander, shadow housing minister, David Simmonds, Liberal Democrats’ hospitals spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller MP, political editor at PoliticsJoe, Ava Evans and Reform-supporting commentator Tim Montgomerie.
Recalling his experience, he said the presenter advises the audience members on how they can get selected to speak on screen after raising their hands. “Fiona came out and just had a quiet chat with us. She’s lovely and very relaxed. She just said if the mic comes near you, speak up nicely and loudly, because they will pick you up. She also advised If you put your arm up, make sure it goes up nice and high so we can see you,” he said.
Mark, who will soon be seen again as Kenneth, the bus driver for the AFC Richmond team, when Ted Lasso returns for a fourth season, continued: “She explained how she would be choosing people in the audience who had an arm up.
“Someone asked how she knew who to pick, and she said,’ Well, it’s really who’s in my eyeline at the time’.
“So one of the panel members can be answering a question and giving their opinion, and she’s looking around to see who’s got their hand up.
“And she tries to spread it around so people from different parts get a go.” However, Mark wasn’t selected on the night, admitting: “I just didn’t stick my hand up, to be honest. I was just sitting there watching it all, really. I nearly put my arm up, but by then I could see they were coming to the end of that particular subject debate, and they just quickly moved on.”
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Mark, who will also soon be seen in Casualty and who hosts the Mark Kempner Hour on Cotswolds Radio on Mondays at 2pm, revealed he had submitted a question to the show, but it wasn’t selected as it was “too local”.
“I was up for asking a question,” he said. ” I thought I stood a chance, because it was fairly topical of the day, which was about why social media companies just allow some of the shocking content that they do allow. I’ve got a bit of a connection there, because I know the lady whose son died doing a TikTok challenge. So I wanted to evoke that discussion a little bit on her behalf and my behalf, but they chose another question,” he said.
