AUTHOR Jeanette Winterson and philosopher Roger Scruton will be among the panel when the BBC’s Question Time comes to Swindon on Thursday.

The topical debate programme, where audience members have a chance to ask panelists particular questions, is coming to a venue in the town that will remain a mystery until the show is broadcast live at 10.35pm on BBC1.

Matt Holland, who organises the Swindon Festival Of Literature, was delighted to hear the news.

He said: “I am very excited, that’s fantastic news. Lucky, lucky Swindon.

“They are two of my favourite writers and thinkers.

“I’ve been trying to get Jeanette Winterson to the Festival Of Literature for years but she has always been away when we hold the festival in May.”

Novelist Jeanette won the 1985 Whitbread Prize for her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which she later adapted into a television mini-series which broadcast on the BBC in 1990.

She was awarded and OBE for services to literature in 2006.

Roger Scruton, who lives in Brinkworth, near Royal Wootton Bassett, is a philosopher specialising in aesthetics who has published more than 30 books, including Art And Imagination, Beauty, and Sexual Desire.

He was also involved in establishing underground universities and academic networks in Soviet-controlled Central Europe during the Cold War.

The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties, as well as other public figures who answer pre-selected questions from the carefully selected audience.

To find out more about the programme, how to pose a question to the panel or how to apply to be a member of the audience, visit www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ b006t1q9.