Bonnie Greer to take on BNP leader on BBC TV

The fellow panellists for Nick Griffin's hotly-disputed appearance on BBC TV's Question Time show on Thursday October 22 have been announced. The far-right BNP leader (above) will discuss the topics of the day with justice secretary Jack Straw, former Lib Dem leadership contender Chris Huhne and the black playwright and author Bonnie Greer. There will also be a Tory, but the producers have yet to settle on which one.

Greer, 60, was born in Chicago where she studied with David Mamet. She moved to England in the 1980s because of the vitality of the black drama scene at the time, and became a British citizen in 1997.

The programme, which is being seen as the anti-immigration party's debut in the mainstream media, will be recorded at the BBC Television Centre in White City, which looks certain to be the scene of protest on the day.

"Like his party, Griffin likes to project an image of besuited normality, speaking for the common citizen against the liberal establishment, and the BBC appears to have bought this travesty," Labour minister Peter Hain wrote in the Guardian.

Unite against Fascism plans to picket the event.  "If we get hundreds, the aim will be to just protest against his presence," said Anindya Bhattacharyya, a spokesman for the group. "What we don't want is for this to go smoothly and for Griffin to get a pat on the back and take his place in polite society. We will make sure that the heat is on Griffin, as well as on the BBC for inviting him."

Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP, said he wished the location had remained secret. "All the lefties are going to kick off, aren't they? They always do," he said.

With plans for a blockade of the building to stop Griffin from getting to the studio, there have been questions raised over who will pay for the cost of policing the event, which is expected to run to tens of thousands of pounds. The BBC has insisted that it will not use license fee money for security, and expects the Metropolitan Police to pay.

The choice of panellists for the show comes after the BBC was criticised at the weekend for giving airtime to two senior BNP members - Mark Collett, director of publicity, and Joseph Barber, who runs the BNP record label, Great White Records - on the Radio 1 Newsbeat show. They described the England footballer Ashley Cole, husband of the Girls Aloud singer and X Factor judge Cheryl Cole, as not "ethnically British" because he is black. ·