

# Event Details

- **Event Name**: BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?
- **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 23 Jan, 2026 at 06:00 pm – Fri, 23 Jan, 2026 at 10:00 pm
- **Event Description**: Any Questions?

BBC Radio 4's flagship political discussion programme is coming to the Corn Exchange in Blandford Forum on Friday 23rd January 2026.

The programme was first broadcast in October 1948 and visits a different part of the UK every week with a panel of four speakers who answer questions from the audience, providing people with the opportunity to challenge politicians, policy makers, writers, and thinkers.

The panel is different each week and is broadcast LIVE on Radio 4 straight after the 8:00pm news bulletin. It's your chance to put your question to the panel.

Doors open at 6:00pm and the audience is to be seated by 6:30pm. 

The programme will be broadcast live from 8-9pm. 

Entry is by ticket only (free of charge), which can be booked online in advance or from the Town Clerk’s Office.

Please note there will be security checks on admittance to the venue. Recording and photography during the broadcast is not permitted.

There will be question cards available for you to complete on arrival. 

Look forward to seeing you there!

More information about the programme...
Any Questions? was first broadcast on Friday 12th October 1948; for the first eighteen months it was a West of England Home Service programme, run from Bristol. It moved to London in April 1950, but after 61 years in the capital, it returned to the production offices in Bristol in 2011. Any Questions? is broadcast live on Radio 4 on most Friday evenings of the year following the 8pm news. The programme is repeated on Saturday lunchtimes at 1.10pm, and is followed at 2pm by the Any Answers? phone-in which gives listeners a chance to join in the debate by calling or e-mailing Anita Anand.
The programme travels throughout the United Kingdom, and occasionally to Europe, at the invitation of local organisations. The audience submits questions on the day of the broadcast and these are then sifted by the producer who selects ten questions across a range of subjects. Normally, four to six of them are included in the actual broadcast. One of the stringent and unchanging rules of Any Questions? is that the panel never sees the questions in advance; the panellists hear them for the first time at the same moment the audience in the hall and at home does.
The programme has had four presenters in its history. Freddie Grisewood was the first, steering the programme until December 1967 when David Jacobs took over. David Jacobs was chairman until July 1983; John Timpson chaired the programme until July 1987 after which Jonathan Dimbleby took the chair from September that year until June 2019. Chris Mason took over as presenter in October 2019, leaving the programme in June 2022 following his appointment as BBC Political Editor. The new permanent presenter of Any Questions will appointed in the Autumn.
The most prolific panellist currently is the late Tony Benn, who first appeared in March 1951 and contributed around 80 times to the programme! Over the years, many figures of note have appeared as panellists, including most past and present leaders of the political parties. Every Prime Minister since Harold Wilson has appeared on Any Questions at some point in their political career! Panels also feature many distinguished figures from the worlds of the Arts, Science, Business, Law and other areas of public life.
Currently, around 1.59 million people listen to the programme each week, the majority of them hearing the Saturday lunchtime repeat. The programme has only rarely had to come off air - once through audience disruption, once as a result of sabotage by disaffected schoolboys, and once during the Suez crisis when a Parliamentary ruling was breached. More recently the programme had to be pulled off the air in April 2011 as a result of an unfortunate disruption to the trains which rendered three of the four panellists unable to reach the programme venue in County Durham. The programme was broadcast from a studio in London with panellists taking part from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/blandford-forum/bbc-radio-4s-any-questions/200029483413853
- **Event Categories**: art, business, contests, literary-art, parties, entertainment, first-friday
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 56

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket URL**: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/blandford-forum-town-council/t-glxmvyz?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=blandford+forum-events

## Event venue details

- **city**: Blandford Forum
- **state**: EN
- **country**: United Kingdom
- **location**: Corn Exchange, Blandford Forum
- **lat**: 50.8560949
- **long**: -2.1647566
- **full address**: Corn Exchange, Blandford Forum, United Kingdom

## Event Organizer details

- **affiliate_id**: 2
- **organizer**: Blandford Forum Town Council (https://allevents.in/org/blandford-forum-town-council/19930242)

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: banner
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/d27cdcc1d2a01537ef6d9a1913f52fdceba76b7154e61b3b6f9e01eb80749522-rimg-w851-h315-dc0437a4-gmir?v=1768844933
- **Alt text**: thumbnail
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/16601303440e2fcdfe3ea6a2aa49aa02a138e6e3ea07f8494d428cc15e5f2bca-rimg-w300-h300-dca0e8ff-gmir?v=1768844933

## FAQs

- **Q**: When is the event happening?
  - **A:** Fri, 23 Jan, 2026 at 06:00 pm
- **Q**: Where is the event happening?
  - **A:** Corn Exchange, Blandford Forum, United Kingdom
- **Q**: Who is organizing the event?
  - **A:** Blandford Forum Town Council
- **Q**: What type of event is this?
  - **A:** art, business, contests, literary-art, parties, entertainment, first-friday
- **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? ?
  - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents.

## Structured Data (JSON-LD)

```json
[
    {
        "@context": "https://schema.org",
        "@type": "Event",
        "name": "BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?",
        "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/d27cdcc1d2a01537ef6d9a1913f52fdceba76b7154e61b3b6f9e01eb80749522-rimg-w851-h315-dc0437a4-gmir?v=1768844933",
        "startDate": "2026-01-23",
        "endDate": "2026-01-23",
        "url": "https://allevents.in/blandford-forum/bbc-radio-4s-any-questions/200029483413853",
        "location": {
            "@type": "Place",
            "name": "Corn Exchange, Blandford Forum",
            "address": {
                "@type": "PostalAddress",
                "streetAddress": "Corn Exchange, Blandford Forum, 19 Market Place, Blandford Forum, DT11 7AG, United Kingdom",
                "addressLocality": "Blandford Forum",
                "addressRegion": "EN",
                "addressCountry": "GB"
            },
            "geo": {
                "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
                "latitude": "50.8560949",
                "longitude": "-2.1647566"
            }
        },
        "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode",
        "description": "Any Questions?\n\nBBC Radio 4's flagship political discussion programme is coming to the Corn Exchange in Blandford Forum on Friday 23rd January 2026.\n\nThe programme was first broadcast in October 1948 and visits a different part of the UK every week with a panel of four speakers who answer questions",
        "organizer": [
            {
                "@type": "Organization",
                "name": "Blandford Forum Town Council",
                "url": "https://allevents.in/org/blandford-forum-town-council/19930242"
            }
        ]
    }
]
```