Any Questions -- and Roman omens

When I was about 12, I asked a question on “Any Questions” when it visited Telford New Town. It was one of those “What should the government do. . . “ type questions. In this case, what should the government about a group of merchant seamen who (as I recall ) had been arrested by the Chinese. One of the said seamen came from Market Drayton in Shropshire, and was indeed the brother of one of my school friends.

I remember two things about this occasion. The first was that I was a bit disappointed with the panel’s answers (one of them, I remember, called me “Madam” -- a form of address I didn’t feel particularly applied to me, aged 12). The second was that it seemed wonderfully exciting to be sitting up there on the stage saying what you thought about all these questions that people threw at you. And there, I suppose, a little ambition was born.

An ambition fulfilled on Friday night, when I did appear on “Any Questions” – broadcast from Ashtead in Surrey.

It meant for a fun week beforehand – largely because there was a perfect alibi for spending every evening reading the newspapers, on the grounds that one was prepping for the questions.

“Any Questions” is quite unlike any other live radio programme I’ve ever been on (OK, no boasting here – not all that many). Usually you have lots of pre-prep…you talk to the producer or his/her assistant, they tell you what they are going to ask and you say what you are going to say in reply. On “Any Questions” the questions really are a surprise: they’re “sight unseen”. That gives it the kind of adrenaline rush that you remember from going into an exam.

The first question was about the near-plane crash at Heathrow. I’d been reading a lot about this, and hoping that it wasn’t going to become one of those nasty incidents in which our pilot heroes who saved the day would turn -- after we’d looked at the black-box etc -- into sadly negligent characters who had (eg) failed to pull the throttle, or whatever, at the right moment. Pilot error in other words. (No sign of that so far, thank heavens.)

It did strike me, though, that there was a terribly ominous quality here (“ominous” in the Roman sense, that is). One plane nearly crashes as Mr Brown waits to take off en route to China. Even better is the story reported by the Evening Standard (but nowhere else so far as I can see – so I didn’t use it on the show), that Brown had been prevented from using the VIP suite at Heathrow because it was already occupied by the Qatari royal family.

It doesn’t take much of a classicist to see what Tacitus would have made of this. “There were those that said that a new world order was being foretold, when they saw that the Prime Minister was kept out of the VIP suite by eastern royalty and prevented from taking off by a crashing British jet….”.

But my verdict on “Any Questions”? Well it’s been my week snuggling up to the BBC. But I give it 10 out of 10 on a lot of scores. .. and a “well worth the licence fee” vote. We are always going on about people not turning up at election meetings and hustings. In Ashtead there  were more than 300 people turning out on a rainy January night to hear three politicians and me (and, however much they enjoyed me, it was the politicians not Beard who had attracted them) chatting about Kenya, organ donation and party funding.

You can listen again for the next 7 days, here, and see what you think.

Comments

[Jackie]

I see you have continued your connections with the BBC in the current edition if the BBC History Magazine. I agree that to hear Thusnelda's side of the story would be fascinating. I also like your description of Tiberius as 'a grumpy old thing' but don't you think he had good cause? The first of the Julio-Claudian emperors to be the victim of an over ambitious mother?

[abc]

Anyone spot Heath Ledger's death today...? He's so pretty

[Paul Potts]

It would seem that the BBC is in need of all the support it can get at the moment. But I recommend that you abandon the TV and stick to radio. Then you do not have to pay the licence fee, you get much more information per square second than the TV can provide, and you can do other things at the same time, like ironing shirts or reading blog posts. Or driving to Surrey.

Thanks for you very interesting account of Classics on the BBC in the TLS. But what happened to Michael Ayrton?

Paulo

[abc]

hey Mary. This is yet another wicked article. Just getting back to work after a fabby session on method with 20 students. I'm 35 soon and yep off to be an auntie so...when I have my partie you'll have to come and, hey, the obese can get on with it then. I pretty much roared at that theory! So much for AMB-ition, dear.

[Xjy]

Great to see you making a big thing of the adrenalin rush of interacting with other people in a public arena. I suppose this is basically what we're all about - the private rush and the public and getting them into sync.

Also great is the direct emotional/ intellectual link you make between yourself at 12 and now and possible angles on comments that include a recreation of Tacitus.

The teenage memory I'd mention in this kind of context is standing up to put a question in a packed hall with knees like unset jelly and a voice that juddered so much it was hardly comprehensible.

The Vikings got it right: Madhr er manns gaman - People enjoy people! And it's visceral, fire in the blood, burn or freeze stuff. Plaisir, not amusement. Sappho's flesh and lightning, not Dag Hammarskjöld's neutered contemplation of a block of granite...

And if this can happen in Ashtead, incubated by a broody Aunt Beeb, it can happen anywhere!