To say that politics is simply exciting at the moment is to miss the mark by a mile. The intensity of feeling over Brexit and over the future direction of both the main parties is astonishing.

The question for a parliamentary channel is: how much of this will come to the surface? All good family rows are conducted behind closed doors, so in the next few weeks it will be fascinating to see and hear what gets said in public. And that’s what �鶹Լ�� Parliament gives audiences: the authenticity and immediacy of the ringside seat.

Prime Minister’s Questions offers the spectacle of a defence made against the questions that are being asked, quite literally, behind the back of the Prime Minister. Theresa May has to turn around 360 degrees to face her toughest critics. Now, eye-level cameras give a much more intimate view of the Commons chamber than ever before, taking you onto the floor of the House.

We try to make sense of the business of the day in clear, guiding captions and in the daily and weekly reports such as Monday in Parliament – I’m going to let you guess the programme names for the rest of the week – and The Week in Parliament. These programmes also show on other �鶹Լ�� channels at odd times of the day and night! A joined up approach with Today in Parliament on Radio 4 and bbc.co.uk/parliaments is aimed for, at all times.

It used to be said that the party conferences were all the same. Well, not any more. The Conservatives adopt the presentational style of a business conference, with speech following speech in stately procession, and the real action over at the fringe. This time, we assume the party leader will have all the letters firmly glued to the back of the set.

Bitterly contested arguments are expected at Labour – well, that’s if the old New Labour actually turn up. Many MPs are telling me they’d rather not be there at all, and plan to keep a very low profile.

If you want to see democracy in action, where the top table doesn’t always get its own way, you can also try sampling the Liberal Democrats or the SNP. With highlights and leaders’ speeches from the other parties, it’s going to be a long hot conference season in Brighton, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardigan and Glasgow.

And among our other treats watch out for is a nine-part series from the great political commentator Steve Richards, titled Reflections: The Prime Ministers We Never Had. The last such series on the channel, it will astonish you with tales of all those near misses!

This is a style of television last seen in the heyday of AJP Taylor, where a person with something to say launches themselves at the studio camera and talks without notes or autocue for an unbroken half hour. Utterly brilliant.

Who’s watching? �鶹Լ�� Parliament has a huge, or microscopic, audience depending on which way you approach the question. It’s the world’s best watched dedicated parliamentary channel, getting on for a monthly reach of 2 million, and unlike some it doesn’t mess around borrowing from other genres – films and sport! – to bump up the numbers. Or, it’s a tiny channel, with a minute fraction of the total, vast, television audience.

Take your pick. But from either viewpoint the channel is loved by an audience who want to watch history in the making.

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Party conferences and the Prime Ministers we never had: �鶹Լ�� Parliament's new season