By Sue Read

KEEPING a pretty sensational secret for several months was the most difficult part for a group of people in Cheriton Fitzpaine.

When word did get out, tickets for BBC Radio 4’s “Any Questions?” broadcast from Cheriton Parish Hall went like those veritable hot cakes.

The evening proved fascinating - if a little warm with the hall packed, the lights and the winter woollies.

We had to be in our seats by 7pm for the last “Any Questions?” of 2017, being broadcast live from 8.02pm. The next show would be back on January 12 from Sedbury in Gloucestershire.

“Any Questions?” travels the whole country with the big production lorry from its Bristol base, the setup team of three, producer and editor. Much praise went to the lorry driver who squirmed the big vehicle into the parish hall car park, where a mobile signal is more or less non-existent but where their satellite did the business.

Local electrician Dave Simms did the electrics, the visit had been arranged by parish hall committee member Becky Smith.

Hall committee chairman Carl Steele explained: “It was Becky who wrote to the BBC almost a year ago, so we kept it secret until this autumn which wasn’t very easy.”

The programme went out on Friday, December 22, several of the crew had arrived on Thursday, staying locally and eating in the local pub.

Parking space had been arranged with the primary school up the road, parking spaces at the hall used by the BBC and speakers.

Everyone had space on their ticket for a question, all were encouraged to put in at least one question and reminded that as this was a nationwide broadcast, national or international questions were more likely to be chosen. From these were chosen 10 questions, with six being asked.

Jonathan Dimbleby, as usual, was the presenter. The panel was Marvin Rees, Sir Edward Davey, Kwasi Kwarteng and Anne Atkins.

A Labour politician and Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees grew up there with seven brothers and sisters. Because of family circumstances he spent time with his mother in a refuge in Exmouth. He has worked in the US, for the BBC and also in the UK for the NHS.

Sir Edward Davey is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Home Affairs and MP for Kingston and Surbiton.

Kwasi Kwarteng is MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor Philip Hammond earlier this year and a prominent Leave campaigner.

Anne Atkins is a writer and broadcaster, commentator on moral and ethical issues, known for her regular contribution to Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day”, was born in Dorset, grew up in Cambridge and now lives in Bedford.

Ten questions were chosen - devised by Sally Baldwin, Chris Lomas, Patrick RE Johnston, Jo McDade, Robert Stephenson, Pamela Galloway, Ann Midwinter Cook, Alice May, Tracey Joliffe and Gary Crumpler.

The questions used were by Sally Baldwin, Chris Lomas, Patrick Johnston, Jo McDade, Pamela Galloway and Robert Stephenson and ranged from the new blue British passport, whether politics is too city-centred, is Britain a hypocritical society and the government complacent about homelessness and did the panel believe in angels?

Everyone was welcomed by Parish Hall Committee chairman Carl Steele who said how the evening would not have happened without the help of a number of people, especially Becky Smith and Dave Pink.

“Enjoy the experience,” he said. “I doubt if we shall get it again. It is a massive privilege.”

The programme first began in 1948. A quiz programme on the Home Service had stopped, someone had suggested asking questions of four politicians - and it never stopped.

Kirsten Lass, programme editor, said there had been a massive number of questions put forward at Cheriton.

Producer Polly Weston explained what would happen, there was a warm-up question, then the Pips, the beginning of the news and flowing in smoothly Jonathan Dimbleby was announcing the start of “Any Questions?” from the village near Crediton.

The parish hall is used for the market on the second Saturday morning of each month, drama both amateur and professional, music from all over the world and much more.

A huge team of volunteers had helped get the hall ready, clear away and serve the refreshments.