Prime Minister's Questions celebrates its 50th anniversary next Monday. Unique among the world's parliaments, PMQs offers a raucous insight into the tough-minded debates of British politics. Assailed from all sides, opposition members and backbenchers alike, every modern Prime Minister's temperament has been tested by this impressive fixture.
To celebrate this huge milestone, we've put together a list of its top ten moments.
Key PMQs Facts
1. The first Prime Minister's Questions session was held on 24th October 1961 under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
2. PMQs was originally held in two fifteen minute sessions each week. Tony Blair merged the two sessions into one 30 minute meeting during his premiership.
3. Margaret Thatcher was the first Prime Minister to answer questions without giving way to her Ministers.
4. PMQs was first televised on 21st November 1989. Its first internet broadcast took place in 2002.
5. Personal and political insults are a regular fixture every week. Tony Banks MP once referred to Margaret Thatcher as a "sex-starved boa constricta" without being reprimanded.