Question Time audience steals the show

It may have been Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn's big night but it was the lively audience which caught the imagination of social media.

While many people got to ask both candidates questions, there were a few key characters who stole the limelight.

The first was Abigail Eatock, who asked the opening question of Mrs May. She didn't pull any punches: "Why should the public trust anything you say or any of your policies when you have a known track record of broken promises and back tracking during your time as home secretary and now as prime minister?"

Abigail, who is the chair of the University of York's UKIP Society, impressed people with her challenge to Mrs May.

"Just let this woman quiz Theresa May for the rest of the show. Amazing." wrote the Huffington Post's Owen Bennett.

The UKIP supporter's contribution was taken to heart by many on the left of UK politics with Labour member Jo Philips simply tweeting "Star!! #Abigail"

Self-described stand-up comedian and socialist Chris Coltrane tweeted "Abigail for Prime Minister". Though he later deleted the tweet.

"Abigail you are my life hero." tweeted Labour member Rosa.

Was Abigail satisfied with Theresa May's answer to her question?

"I felt it was a lot of political spiel," she told the BBC, adding that she felt the answer was too rehearsed.

Moustache Man

Abigail may have shot to prominence for her direct questions but Twitter took another audience member to heart for pure aesthetics.

Whilst sporting a large and bushy moustache this audience member first questioned Theresa May on her manifesto and later Jeremy Corbyn about his defence policy.

"I want to vote for this man's moustache immediately" wrote Paul Southall. "That moustache is truly magnificent" another user concurred.

"In a sea of uncertainty... there is a handlebar moustache" proclaimed Nancy Dewe Matthews.

Inevitably he was dubbed moustache man by social media users.

"Handlebar moustache man's moustache presumably already has 17 Twitter parody accounts." joked actor David Schneider. At the time of writing one account named simply Moustache Man had been created.

To some he had the look of a character who had tumbled out of a bedtime story:

The issue of Trident turned into one of the livelier moments of Jeremy Corbyn's questions from the audience. It also demonstrated how Twitter won't hesitate to depict someone as a pantomime villain.

Audience member Adam Murgatroyd kicked off discussion by asking Mr Corbyn: "If Britain were under imminent threat from nuclear weapons how would you react?"

Mr Murgatroyd said he was "concerned" that Mr Corbyn wouldn't commit to using nuclear weapons in retaliation to a nuclear attack.

Mr Murgatroyd was quickly portrayed by users as someone hungry to use nuclear weapons.

A tweet from Joey Fazza shared more than 700 times showed Mr Murgatroyd with the caption: "When you want to blow millions of people up but Corbs isn't into a world that's a nuclear wasteland."

Another tweet shared almost 600 times showed him with the caption: "Let me push the button, I will push it, let me push it."

But TV presenter Piers Morgan's tweet echoing the concerns of Mr Murgatroyd was also widely shared: "So a rogue state nukes London then prepares to nuke Birmingham & Sheffield. Corbyn would do nothing to stop them."

By contrast a lady who accused the rest of the audience of being "obsessed with murdering millions of people" was lionised by twitter users.

"I love this woman. She speaks for me", wrote Labour member Helen Cherry.

"Kudos to the young woman who who expressed surprise so many in #bbcqt audience are obsessed with genocide", tweeted Ian Fraser

But journalist Jane Merrick didn't agree: "The woman who said her fellow #bbcqt audience members were 'keen' on killing millions was so disingenuous it's beyond belief."

Compiled by the BBC's UGC and Social Media team