BBC scoops party leaders for live TV first
Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy have agreed to appear on live television for the first time in the same programme.
The leaders of the three major political parties will each be grilled in a special edition of Question Time on April 28.
The BBC said today it had tried to persuade them to do an American-style head-to-head debate but Labour refused.
However, the corporation is still heralding this as a major scoop - such was the party leaders' nervousness about taking part in live debates during the last election that the BBC was forced to broadcast three separate Question Time specials.
This is the nearest British voters will get to a US-style debate with each leader appearing consecutively in the 90-minute special to be hosted by Question Time regular David Dimbleby.
"We did talk about a live debate but it became perfectly clear that particularly Labour had no interest," said Helen Boaden, the head of BBC news.
"It's going to be pretty splashy. We're giving a big chunk of BBC airtime over to the debate and it is going to be interesting to see how the individual leaders react to being cross-examined by the same audience."
The BBC unveiled its election coverage just hours after Mr Blair went to Buckingham Palace to confirm that May 5 would be polling day.
Ric Bailey, the executive editor in charge of Question Time, said the leaders had agreed to take part in the debate although details about who will appear first have yet to be thrashed out.
"We haven't been talking to the leaders all that long. We came up with the proposals and we got a tacit agreement. A lot of the detail and the choreography has got to be sorted out but they will appear live on the same programme," he said.
mediaguardian
but I feel they may not be good for the country 
@ Grim
