Ananova:

A cat owner only realised her ginger Tom was missing when a friend rang to say she'd just seen him - on Question Time.

Tango appeared on screen on the BBC1 show as David Dimbleby, politicians and pundits discussed topics as diverse as the wearing of burkhas and MP's expenses.

The cat strolled into the studio as the show was being broadcast from Newquay, Cornwall, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Recording was underway Tango crept in through a back door, ducked under a television mixing desk and made his way under the assembled seating.

The show was being broadcast from Treviglas community college, where Tango's owner, Jackie Ellery, works.

Ms Ellery, a mother-of-two, who lives nearby, said: "My friend phoned me up to say 'have you seen your cat on the telly'. I'd been doing something else at the time but rewound it and there he was," she said.

"It's lovely - he's a mischievous cat anyway and because we live so close to the school he's often in school grounds. The sixth formers know him really well. He must have known something was going on."