Yahoo News Question Time cut short after audience member falls ill
Question Time viewers got a little less debate than they were hoping for on Thursday after the show was cut short due to a medical emergency.
The usually hour-long programme only aired for about 40 minutes last night (November 23) before the recording from Colchester Town Hall in Essex was suspended when a member of the audience fell ill.
Host David Dimbleby then appeared on the screen to share a message that was recorded afterwards explaining what had happened, adding that the audience member couldn't safely be moved while recording was in progress.
David explains why our show tonight was shorter than usual.
From all of us on Question Time - goodnight #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/1T07IR7PjO- BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) November 23, 2017
"I'm afraid at this point we had to curtail this edition of Question Time," Dimbleby explained. "A member of the audience was taken ill and couldn't safely be moved, so we had to bring the programme to a close."
Before the programme went to air it was reported that Question Time would be shorter on Thursday, and the show's official Twitter page also added that it was their priority to make sure the ill audience member was looked after.
"Further to our earlier statement, an audience member on tonight's QT was taken ill," they added. "Our first priority was to make sure that she was looked after by medical staff who attended. As a consequence tonight's Question Time was slightly shorter than billed."
Further to our earlier statement, an audience member on tonight’s QT was taken ill. Our first priority was to make sure that she was looked after by medical staff who attended. As a consequence tonight’s Question Time was slightly shorter than billed.
- BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) November 23, 2017
Thursday's show saw Conservative Greg Clark, Labour's Diane Abbott, former head of the Met Police Bernard Hogan-Howe, novelist Dreda Say Mitchell and businessman Stuart Rost take part in debates around questions about the new Budget and on "what is the point of capitalism?"
Question Time returns next Thursday (November 30) on BBC One.
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