FORMER Question Time host David Dimbleby has revealed he was the target of a kidnap plot when he fronted the BBC show.
He said protesters tried to snatch him to stop the show going on air when the far-right British National Party’s then-leader Nick Griffin was booked to appear.
The decision to invite Griffin on the topical debate programme in 2009 had sparked mass public and political debate.
David, who presented the show for 25 years, says: “The Television Centre was supposedly secure, with gates at each entrance and BBC passes required for access.
"It had survived most attempts at incursion, or the disruption of its output, for over 40 years.
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“Not, however, on the night of Nick Griffin’s appearance.
“It had been agreed with the police that the protesters would be kept on the pavement opposite the front of the Television Centre, with the main road between them and the building.
“Then for some reason, never explained, the police failed to do their job.
"The protesters swarmed across the road and forced their way through the gates into Television Centre itself.”
Journalist David, 84 — who hosted his final edition of the topical debate show in 2018 — has written about the incident in his book, Keep Talking.
He recalled: “We were busy working on the last details of the programme in an office set on one of the centre’s circular corridors when we heard a shout, ‘Lock your doors. Stay where you are’, followed by the sound of feet stampeding round the corridor outside and shouts of ‘Where is he?’
“The protesters had breached our fortifications.
“Somehow a combination of the police and the BBC’s own security managed to corner and expel the protesters.
“I assumed at the time they were looking for Nick Griffin, but I was told later that their aim was to find and kidnap me so that the programme could not go on.”