Fiona Bruce explains why she hosted Question Time with sling and ‘remnants of black eye’

Host addressed injuries she sustained off-screen at start of latest episode

Question Time viewers were left surprised as Fiona Bruce presented the latest episode of the BBC panel show with visible injuries, including a black eye.

The broadcaster hosted Thursday’s (5 October) edition of the programme from Wolverhampton, and immediately addressed her black eye as well as the sling she was wearing.

After introducing the panel, Bruce told her audience and those watching at home: “I thought I’d just mention it – it is the least interesting thing in the programme – but in case you’re wondering I broke my hand, and I have got the remnants of a black eye, because I fell off a horse.”

She added: “And that’s all there is to say about that.”

Appearing on the panel at the time were transport minister Richard Holden, shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth, writer Emma Dabiri, the executive chairman of Iceland supermarket, Richard Walker, and journalist and author Tony Parsons.

Bruce has hosted Question Time since 2019, when she took over from long-serving host David Dimbleby.

She joined the BBC as a researcher for Panorama in 1989, and became the first female newsreader on the BBC News at Ten, .

Over the years, she has hosted many flagship shows for the corporation, including BBC News at Six, Crimewatch, Real Story and Antiques Roadshow.

Fiona Bruce in a sling on ‘Question Time’ (BBC)

Last month, it was revealed that BBC’s flagship presenters have been banned from criticising political parties.

It comes following a review into the corporation’s social media guidelines after Match of the Day host Gary Lineker compared the language used by the Conservative Government to promote its asylum plans to 1930s Germany in a post on X/Twitter.

Lineker’s comment sparked an impartiality row, and the former England striker Lineker was briefly taken off air due to the post before being later reinstated after a boycott by top talent.

Hosts who must abide by the new ban include Bruce, Strictly Come Dancing’s Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, The Apprentice star Lord Alan Sugar and Dragons’ Den’s Evan Davis.

MasterChef hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace and The One Show’s Alex Jones are also included.

Additional reporting by Agencies