BBC promises Moore for US Question Time
Moore: will appear alongside Richard Littlejohn, Sidney Blumenthal and David Frum
Controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore is to go head to head with outspoken Sun columnist Richard Littlejohn in a BBC Question Time US election special from Florida.
The panel will also include Bill Clinton's former chief adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, and David Frum, formerly George Bush's speech writer.
Security at the Miami TV studio where Thursday's Florida election special is to be filmed is to be stepped up, but the Question Time team has experienced a similar situation before, when they broadcast from New York on the first anniversary of September 11 in 2002.
"Our security is always pretty tight, to be honest. When we filmed in New York on the first anniversary of 9/11, we had Michael Moore and Geoff Hoon on the show and George Bush was in town speaking to the UN, so that was very high security," said Ric Bailey, the BBC's deputy head of political programmes and executive producer of Question Time.
"Michael did the programme in 2002 - he knows it. Richard Littlejohn has covered a lot of US elections and lives in Florida for part of the year, so he knows the local political landscape," Mr Bailey added.
"David Frum is the brains behind a lot of the early Bush era, so he's very much part of the Bush camp. And Sidney had a central role in the Clinton administration."
Mr Bailey, who arrived in Miami with the Question Time presenter, David Dimbleby, and the show's production team on Sunday, said the city felt like "the centre of politics for the moment".
Florida gained electoral notoriety in the 2000 presidential election, when the US Supreme Court had to be called in to decide whether to award the state to Bush or the Democrat candidate, Al Gore, following confusion over the result.
"The election result is so knife edge and there's so much history [in Florida] from last time. So it feels like the right place to be," Mr Bailey said.
Mr Bailey added that the Question Time team would be attempting to ensure the audience was balanced between Democrat and Republican supporters, along with some Brits and undecided US voters - "although there aren't that many of those," he said.
He added that Question Time from Miami on Thursday night would not go out live, because of the time difference with the US, but would probably be recorded one hour before transmission.
The show is due to go out on BBC1 at 10.45pm on Thursday and will also be broadcast on BBC international news channel, BBC World.
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