A two-hour debate between the Labour leadership candidates on 5 Live didn’t sound like an invitation to the most thrilling 120 minutes of radio ever broadcast.
But thanks to host Victoria Derbyshire’s refusal to let the candidates evade the Stevenage audience’s questions – even shouting at Ed Balls to get him to identify a single spending cut that he would make - this could be the moment that the contest finally caught fire.
Iraq, grudges from the Blair-Brown era, sibling rivalry, immigration and bullying accusations against Balls were all given a full airing.
Derbyshire immediately unsettled the five by asking them to introduce themselves as “human beings” not politicians, prompting much awkward chat about watching Desperate Housewives and domestic chores.
David Miliband stole the headlines with a soundbite about David Cameron being a “loudmouth” on his foreign trips.
Diane Abbott enjoyed herself so much, cheekily asking the Milibands who their mother was backing, that she voluntarily raised her decision to send her son to private school, the issue that prompted the longest radio silence in history on the Today programme.
Political junkies will want to listen to the whole programme which showed that the Labour contest need not be a bore, if the debates are conducted without lecterns and the usual staid formality.
The five were forced to sit among the audience and sustained a fair amount of abuse from the questioners – well, from the Labour audience members anyway.
There’ll be a Question Time TV debate when the ballot papers are sent out, which could be crucial to the outcome. With apologies to Dimblebys everywhere, perhaps the persistent Derbyshire should take the chair?
