IT is a side of David Dimbleby that viewers of Question Time don't normally see.

The veteran broadcaster does an uncannily accurate impersonation of Tony Benn, jokes about reality television, hums loudly to himself and laughs as his hair is titivated by a smiling make-up artist.

The jocularity is all part of the warm-up for Question Time, the BBC's most-watched current affairs show, which was broadcast from the Dolphin Centre, in Darlington, last night.

Moments after the audience stops chuckling at Mr Dimbleby, the "as-live" recording of the show begins and the panel - consisting of backbench Labour MP Nick Brown, Conservative Party co-chairman Liam Fox, Liberal Democrat Baroness Shirley Williams and journalists Polly Toynbee and Zac Goldsmith - faces a series of questions.

The programme is recorded less than two hours before it goes out on air, meaning the only editing needed is for libellous comments or bad language.

Luckily, the 150-strong Darlington audience is well-behaved - if positively hopping mad over the prospect of fuel price rises.

One man, a member of Fathers For Justice, tells Mr Brown, the former agriculture minister, that people are sick of the Labour Government.

Dr Fox seizes his chance to agree. "The Government just doesn't listen," he says. "They have achieved a level of arrogance where they don't listen to what people say."

Panel members are asked if they approve of the potential gridlocking of Newcastle next week by fuel protestors.

None come out in wholehearted support of the plan - but Mr Goldsmith, editor of The Ecologist magazine, gets a round of applause for his view that farmers are the real victims.

Next up is a question about postal voting - a topic which clearly inflames passion in the region.

"I'm so angry that I can't go to a polling booth," says one woman. An impromptu vote on the merits of postal ballots versus polling stations suggests that most others in the audience agree.

Dr Fox jumps in with another barbed comment: "Tony Blair does care what you think...once every four years," he says.

It gets the biggest laugh of the night - not counting David Dimbleby's off-screen antics.

* Darlington MP and former health secretary Alan Milburn will appear on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on June 25 from Durham School.