Broadcast live and with no scheduled end time, the series, inspired by an Austrian programme called "Club 2", was considered to be a groundbreaking reinvention of the discussion programme format. The programme was hosted by a variety of presenters, and each episode had around half a dozen guests, often including a member of the public. Guests would be selected to provoke lively discussion; subject matter included "the treatment of children, of the mentally ill, of prisoners, and about class, cash and racial and sexual difference", as well as "matters of exceptional sensitivity to the then Thatcher government, such as state secrecy or the Troubles in Northern Ireland"; "places further afield...– Chile, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Nicaragua, South Africa and Russia – featured regularly" and "less apparently solemn subjects – sport, fashion, gambling, pop music – were in the mix from the start". Memorable conversations included footballer Garth Crooks disputing the future of the game with politician Sir Rhodes Boyson; MP Teresa Gorman walking out of a discussion about unemployment with Billy Bragg; and Oliver Reed drunkenly kissing Kate Millett during a programme that asked "Do Men Have To Be Violent?" Other guests included "poets and pornographers, spies and solicitors, feminists and farmers, witches and whalers, judges and journalists". "The Daily Telegraph" said "the discussion was open-ended. It would stop when the guests decided the debate was over, not when TV executives said so".