Let's be honest from the start here, and drop the clickbait - we didn't really *kidnap* an MP, this was for RAG, it was all a setup. But we did briefly meet Alan Titchmarsh, and he seemed pretty nice. I was involved in RAG (Raise And Give) for a while at Aston Uni. To a limited extent, and for a limited time - to be honest, it wasn't the most inviting group there at the time. But one of the things I was involved in was a stunt for Children In Need. Somehow we'd arranged with a local MP to 'kidnap' him, take his vintage fire engine, and drive it to the BBC studios to try to get ourselves on TV, all while collecting money for Children In Need. So we rode in a fire engine, dressed in the RAG 'hit' costume - a somewhat tattered lab coat and a torn red money bag over our heads. Well, some of us in 'hit' costumes, some not. But I was. We made a stop first at a fancy restaurant the MP was a regular at. No idea where it was, but some very rich part of Birmingham. Apparently they exist. Some of the diners didn't look very happy about it, but we'd been given permission to run around the place collecting donations, and we were a bunch of students all convinced that raising some money for charity excused pissing people off quite nicely. And while I feel kind of bad about the one time I did the same in the streets while people were trying to shop, these people were rich Tories, so it's hard to feel bad for them. Wait on, I'll try harder. Nope, still not happening. Anyway, with some encouragement from their local MP, most did start dipping into their pockets, and the advantage of raiding rich people kicked in - they were throwing notes in the collection boxes, in some cases £20 notes. We made it to the Pebble Mill studios. And we got passes to go in to the audience. The only problem was, we didn't get enough passes for all of us. There were one or two people who said they didn't really care about going in anyway. I said I wanted to go in, but I didn't need a pass. I was a techie. I never needed a pass. For some reason I thought BBC security, checking everyone on entry, would be the same as the backstage security at our own student venue, who already knew who I was. Turned out I was right. I just walked straight past security, and they didn't attempt to stop me. And we got into the audience to watch one segment being filmed. But then we had to leave - they change the entire audience out between segments. We decided to try pleading our case with Alan Titchmarsh. For some reason he was there in the stage area, with nobody trying to keep people from just walking right up to him. He was very nice, but explained it wasn't really anything to do with him, and even if it was, if we stayed, they'd send in a full set of people, and there wouldn't be enough space for everyone. Which, to be fair, had already been a problem, because apparently some people must have just sneaked in when they weren't supposed to. We thanked him for talking to us and left. Obnoxious students we may have been, but annoying Alan Titchmarsh would be step too far.