Television shows are no strangers to critics, but political program ‘BBC Question Time’ is feeling the heat in a special way, as dozens on Twitter are composing not-so-complimentary rhymes under the hashtag #WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT.
The poets, and their corresponding works, range from clever to not-so-great. However, they all seem to share a common theme – BBC Question Time’s choices of participants leaves much to be desired.
Many wrote about the program’s audience being “planted,” which could be in reference to host David Dimbleby recently announcing that only people under the age of 30 will be allowed in the audience when the show is in Leeds later this month.
Women talked over
Nigel in clover
Audience planted
Questions slanted
Dimbleby’s sneers
The off switch nears— Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) March 9, 2018
Another person also addressed the BBC’s so-called “plants,” in a straight-to-the-point poem which took advantage of the fact that there are no rules in poetry. “They’ve got more plants than Gardeners World,” they wrote, referring to another BBC program, which is about actual plants.
Quite a few seemed to be upset about former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s appearance on the program earlier this month. “It’s time to park it in the garage if the best you’ve got is Nigel Farage,” they wrote.
#WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT
It’s time to park it in the garage
If the best you’ve got is Nigel Farage
You say your programme’s fair and square
So why’s the SNP rarely there
You’re just a shower of Tory shite
A waste of space on Thursday night— Chez_Ally🎗 (@chezally) March 8, 2018
One tweet accused the show of being “hijacked by Brexiteers.” He added that he “used to like Q Time” before that so-called hijacking took place. Another similarly-themed poem lamented that the show no longer debates “strikes, Thatcher and famine.”
I used to like Q Time
Was full of robust debate
Then it was hijacked by Brexiteers
Shouting racist HateAudience full of Tory Plants
Not intellectual, just talking pants
QT has lost it’s shine
I won’t be watching QT,
would rather drink Buckfast tonic wine #WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT— Carl Dumplum #FBPE😎 (@socialliberal1) March 8, 2018
#WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT
I used to watch QT with real passion,
It debated strikes, Thatcher and famine,
Now it’s all Dimbleby,
Who’s no Robin Day,
And the show’s more like Britain’s Got Gammon.— Pete Shea (@pete_shea) March 9, 2018
Some questioned the BBC’s affiliation, accusing it of no longer being the unbiased outlet it claims to be. “Tories lying with glee, what happened to our unbiased BBC,” they wrote.
#WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT
Too biased for meCant watch it no more
Too biased for me
With my jaw on the floor
Tories lying with glee
What happened to our
Unbiased BBC
No answers so far
Too biased for me.— TheInvisiblePoet (@TheInvisiblePo1) March 9, 2018
Isn’t it about time
That people begin to see
That the place to find honest debate
Is not at the BBC#WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT— carianne woodward #FBPE (@cashwoodward) March 9, 2018
Many of the anti-Tory comments were directed at Liam Fox, who was recently on the program’s panel. Fox, a Conservative MP, currently serves as Secretary of State for International Trade.
“Question Time is on the box, we hoped for a great debate. But all we got was Liam Fox, with ideas out of date,” one person wrote.
Another brought in a term heard all too often these days – “fake news.”“It’s not about questions, it’s not about time, it’s fake news and bluster, a broadcasting crime,” he wrote.
Some of the rest were outright brutal:
The bloody set is bloody old
The bloody seats are bloody sold.
The bloody chair’s a bloody bloke
Who bloody cracks a bloody joke
The bloody questions all are pants
The bloody audience are plants
The bloody show’s a bloody crime
Evidently Question Time. #WriteAPoemAboutBBCQT— Bernie Banter #Continuity48% (@BanterBernie) March 8, 2018
‘BBC Question Time’ is a weekly program that airs on BBC One. It has been on television since 1979 and claims to offer “topical debate in which guests from the worlds of politics and the media answer questions posed by members of the public.” It might be that the audience has become picky of late – but members of the public seem to be enjoying the political rhyming debate.
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