One senior Downing Street source with plenty of television experience told Guido bluntly that the format didn’t work, the down the lines (“Abdullah from Bristol“) from the regions were a badly contrived gimmick that broke the flow of the show. The national broadcaster attempted to deliver the big impressive debate last night yet it descended into a shambles…

From the awkward set design, to the questions from crazy people who want to ban all CO2 emissions and worse, even media darling Rory Stewart was driven to decry the format. Insiders are telling Guido that the BBC made a big pitch to candidates that this would be the big defining debate of the campaign, and after tonight the Beeb will struggle to gain candidates’ approval for the one vs one debate in the next stage of the contest. It’s now more likely to go to Sky or ITV…