When we were there everyone was invited to write two questions down on a piece of paper. Behind the scenes they selected a shortlist of questions and called their authors to a little briefing to tell them what would happen if their question was selected to be used and what they had to do. We didn't get picked but I knew a woman who did. In the end, her question wasn't included on the show. The show was recorded about an hour before it went out. I still have a VHS recording of it which I can't view. Not a single thing was altered by editing. Even the theme tune was included, played very loudly in the theatre. Very slick. Just before it started a warm-up man got us all a bit loosened up and invited us to heckle at will. The panel that night was Shami Chakrabarti, Margaret ****ing Hodge, Liam Fox, a LibDem bloke who was later disgraced in a rent-boy sex scandal and someone else who I can't remember. Or was it just four in those days. Let's see if Bob gets his question picked.

I also attended an Any Questions a few years ago. Apart from a lightweight LibDem (she later lost her seat and is now in the Lords) and a lightweight Tory, we had Peter Hain and, guess who, Nigel Farage... The famous (in these parts) Dan the fish man from Clovelly, whose missus was a teacher at my school, made absolute mincemeat of the panel but I can't remember on what subject!