The Big Questions
| The Big Questions | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Religion and ethics |
| Presented by | Nicky Campbell Kaye Adams |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production company(s) | Mentorn Media |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 9 September 2007 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Question Time |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Big Questions is a faith and ethics television programme usually presented by Nicky Campbell. It is currently broadcast live on BBC One between 10:00am and 11:00am on Sunday, replacing Heaven & Earth as the BBC's religious discussion programme.
The format is loosely based on BBC1's political discussion show, Question Time, though it also contains elements that are more familiar to daytime chat shows. Each show features four panellists from a range of different religious and ethical perspectives, as well as a number of contributors from the live studio audience.
Each week, panel and audience debate three ethical, moral or religious topics which featured in the week's news.
Panellists have included notable atheist[1][2][3] Richard Dawkins, convert to Roman Catholicism Ann Widdecombe, Imam Ibrahim Mogra, Scottish philosopher John Joseph Haldane, Bible scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Lord Carey, Jonathan Bartley, Peter Hitchens, Alexander Goldberg, Ian McMillan, Michael Nazir-Ali and Decca Aitkenhead.
The programme used to have a slot for a celebrity interview in which a famous person talks about their life and their moral, ethical and religious beliefs and interests. Such celebrities have included Richard Dawkins, Annie Lennox, John Barrowman, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Simpson and Jamelia. In the second series this section was dropped, and the whole programme instead concentrates on the three discussions.
The programme is currently in its fifth series. A change for the fifth series is that there is no longer a panel, and the discussions are debated entirely by the audience, which is significantly smaller than before.
The programme is produced for the BBC by Mentorn Media (owned by Tinopolis).
From July 2010, The Big Questions's breaks and its slot was filled with a new studio-based religious and ethics discussion programme, Sunday Morning Live hosted by Susanna Reid. The Big Questions still runs January - July, Sunday Morning Live runs July - November.
[edit] References
- ^ Smith, Alexandra (27 November 2006). "Dawkins campaigns to keep God out of classroom". The Guardian. http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1958138,00.html. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
- ^ Chittenden, Maurice; Waite, Roger (23 December 2007). "Dawkins to preach atheism to US". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3087486.ece. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
- ^ Persuad, Raj (2003-03-20). "Holy visions elude scientists". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=P8&targetRule=%5C10&xml=%2Fconnected%2F2003%2F03%2F19%2Fecfgod119.xml. Retrieved 2008-04-17.
