Question Time (TV programme) being taken off the air, and the death of an audience member who collapsed while recording. The programme continued to enjoy good ratings during this period, notably on the day of Margaret Thatcher's resignation on 22 November 1990, which featured two different panels over two editions. David Dimbleby was chosen to succeed Peter Sissons as the programme’s presenter in 1994, after the BBC decided to hold two pilot show auditions between Dimbleby and Jeremy Paxman with two different audiences and two different panels. For a brief period under Dimbleby’s chairmanship in the mid-1990s there were a number of variations to
Question time allow the Minister to discuss the virtues of government policy, or to attack the opposition. A typical format of such a government backbencher's question might be "Could the Minister discuss the benefits of the government's initiative on <issue>, and is the Minister aware of any alternative policies in this area?" Question time is an institution in the Commonwealth Parliament and in all state parliaments. Questions to government ministers normally alternate between government members and the opposition, with the opposition going first. Questions of ministers are generally asked by their counterpart shadow ministers in the opposition, and are always asked by