Mishal Husain: How I’ll referee BBC leaders’ debate with voters at its heart

I’ve done two seven-way leaders’ debates before, in 2017 and earlier this month. Each time there are different complexities, and while you prepare by honing your knowledge of each party’s key policies – and their points of difference – you also want spontaneity and energy. A proper debate, really, rather than speech-making.

The live audiences are chosen by the pollsters Savanta, not the BBC, and for this Prime Ministerial Debate they’ll include Conservative and Labour supporters as well as undecided voters.

We will say this at the beginning of the programme, for maximum transparency, and also explain why the two men are standing where they are and the order in which they will deliver their closing thoughts. Spoiler – it’s a coin toss.

Once we’re into the flow, the debate will run straight through, for an hour and a quarter. Where necessary, I will be nudging the two men back to what was in the question, clarifying points, and yes, probably having to call a halt from time to time.

I can’t predict how the overall tone will be, because that depends on the debaters, for whom these 75 minutes carry both opportunity and risk. They will not know what questions are coming, and the experience will be exacting and possibly, exposing.

But it is also a route through which they can reach millions of people – some of them yet to decide how they will cast their vote.