SKETCH

HARD week at work? Fancied curling up in front of something light? Well, you were out of luck last night as BBC1 cleared its early evening schedule for a two hour Question Time special with the main party leaders.

Had this been the usual QT set-up, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson would have sat at one table and the show could have been wrapped up in an hour. But because these four do not, in the parlance of the pre-school teacher, “play well together”, each was given a separate session before the Sheffield audience.

First up was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He had the toughest time on anti-Semitism within his party, and groans greeted his initially clear as borscht position on which side he would back in a second EU referendum. But what was this? Suddenly, he took a position. He took a position of having no position, ie of neutrality. Jezza, the Switzerland of Brexit.

READ MORE: Corbyn takes neutral stance

Next came a barrage of questions from Scots about indyref2. Had a charabanc been organised? Someone commented on Twitter that there were more Scots in the Sheffield audience than in the QT audiences in Scotland. Host Fiona Bruce, announcing that she had “unexpectedly” hit on a seam of Scottish questioners, said enough was enough and moved the debate on. That will go down well.

Nicola Sturgeon set about correcting what Jeremy Corbyn said on indyref2, that there would be no green light for at least two years. He won’t stick to that in reality, she maintained. If this was a glimpse of how a Labour-SNP relationship would operate, Mr Corbyn is in for some interesting times.

READ MORE: Swinson heckled on austerity

“Two down, two to go!” yelled Bruce as Ms Sturgeon exited stage right.

Jo Swinson bounded on, to be asked by a fellow Scot if she regretted saying at the start of the campaign that she could be PM. Brass neck glinting under the studio lights, she did not. Standing slap bang in the middle of the stage, arms windmilling, she looked and sounded like the world’s least funniest stand up.

She took pelters over revoking article 50, with one woman asking if Ms Swinson thought the 17 million Leave voters were stupid. Another woman, a Remain voter, was similarly irked at the revocation pledge for being undemocratic. The East Dunbartonshire MP had managed to do the impossible and unite Leave and Remain. This was not going well. Had she lobbed sweets into the audience they would have been thrown back at her.

READ MORE: Live blog

Finally, the headline act was here, and he came on to a few boos. One young Scot asked Boris Johnson why he kept running away from scrutiny. “Well, I’m here,” was his response. Tackled on the non-release of the report into alleged Russian interference in British elections, he dismissed the matter as “Bermuda Triangle stuff”, much to the questioner’s annoyance. Shouting erupted and Bruce had to take back control, to coin a phrase. “Hold on,” she shouted, “I’m in charge of this thing.”

Had the audience not used up so much of its ire on Ms Swinson, the PM might have got a rougher ride. But after two hours they were coming down with a bad case of waffle fatigue. They were not alone. “It’s been worth it, hasn’t it?” said Bruce bringing the show to a close in best head girl style. Had it? No one had done an Ed Miliband and stumbled off the giant “Q”, but in many ways it had been a messy old night. Four leaders were better than two, though. Just imagine if all were on the same stage together at the same time. Or will there be a QT from Mars before that happens?