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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Aug 26, 2017 13:40:24 GMT
I found the tape of Carlton's coverage of the 1998 elections and referendum.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2017 15:24:31 GMT
It was genuinely believed Labour could have picked up Uxbridge and Beckenham in those by-elections. The opinion polls were certainly pointing to it. The same goes for Eddisbury two years later. I have no doubt Labour were ahead by double digits for most of that Parliament, but suspect the leads weren't as massive the polls were showing. Perhaps it was the low turnout that prevented Labour making net gains in 2001. Agree. If the Tories had lost Beckenham it would've been disastrous for Hague's leadership. |
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Post by johnloony on Aug 27, 2017 2:56:28 GMT
I found the tape of Carlton's coverage of the 1998 elections and referendum. I haven't yet watched the whole thing through but I skimmed through it quickly and noticed the late Paul Daisley at 46:58. He succeeded Ken Livingstone as MP for Brent East but died of cancer aged 45 in 2003. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Aug 27, 2017 8:54:33 GMT
I found the tape of Carlton's coverage of the 1998 elections and referendum. I haven't yet watched the whole thing through but I skimmed through it quickly and noticed the late Paul Daisley at 46:58. He succeeded Ken Livingstone as MP for Brent East but died of cancer aged 45 in 2003. Yes, he stood out when I was playing it back. Paul Daisley was Brent council leader from 1996 to January 2001 (resigning to campaign for the Parliamentary seat). He was very suddenly taken ill with a tumour just before the election was called, didn't campaign, and was slowly recovering when a second tumour was found which was untreatable. Very sad loss but he was an excellent council leader. There's also an interview with Peter Golds after he lost his seat in Brent. I think you can overdose on schadenfreude sometimes. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Oct 28, 2017 17:48:36 GMT
I'm sure I have that somewhere but despite going through all the VHS tapes I can place, it's not there. The fact that the tapes of two other 1996 byelections (Hemsworth and South East Staffordshire) are also missing shows that I put them aside in a safe place, then forgot where it was. Update: found them. Hence: |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2017 18:55:05 GMT
The first election I saw fully was 2015 - I much prefer the 80s and 90s election coverage. It must've been quite something to see 1997 as it happened.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2017 18:57:11 GMT
The by-election programmes in the 90s were pretty good - like Kincardine & Deeside and Liverpool, Walton in 1991 and Perth & Kinross 1995.
By-elections such as Clacton, Rochester & Strood and Copeland did not have such detailed analysis despite the fact that there were always going to be significant.
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Post by Andrew_S on Oct 28, 2017 19:14:09 GMT
The by-election programmes in the 90s were pretty good - like Kincardine & Deeside and Liverpool, Walton in 1991 and Perth & Kinross 1995. By-elections such as Clacton, Rochester & Strood and Copeland did not have such detailed analysis despite the fact that there were always going to be significant. There was a golden age of specialised by-election programmes in the 80s and 90s. 24 hour news channels finished them off. I don't know whether ITN or Channel 4 ever did any by-election specials. It wouldn't surprise me if they did. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Oct 28, 2017 20:06:33 GMT
The by-election programmes in the 90s were pretty good - like Kincardine & Deeside and Liverpool, Walton in 1991 and Perth & Kinross 1995. By-elections such as Clacton, Rochester & Strood and Copeland did not have such detailed analysis despite the fact that there were always going to be significant. There was a golden age of specialised by-election programmes in the 80s and 90s. 24 hour news channels finished them off. I don't know whether ITN or Channel 4 ever did any by-election specials. It wouldn't surprise me if they did. ITN certainly did. I have the whole of the Bermondsey and Glasgow Hillhead programmes from the 'golden age'. |
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Post by jigger on Oct 28, 2017 20:56:55 GMT
The first election I saw fully was 2015 - I much prefer the 80s and 90s election coverage. It must've been quite something to see 1997 as it happened. 1987 was the first election that I can recall and I remember supporting the Tories primarily because I liked blue as a colour and red is associated with danger. At the time, I didn't know much about politics - just the basics like the Leaders of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. We were kept almost completely protected from the actual election campaign but our parents did buy us a book (unfortunately lost some time ago) that had short summaries of the marginal seats which at the time I showed little interest in but which became more useful as my political interests developed in the 1990s. On election night itself I managed to stay up to watch most of the coverage because my parents had promised to give us a day off school if we were good company for my mother. My father went to the count but (though he didn't tell me this until many years afterwards) he was disappointed with the result because the Tories had been hoping to get more than 50% of the vote and their vote share fell. He blamed Mrs Thatcher for the poor result as she was deeply unpopular on Merseyside by this point, even in Tory strongholds like ours. |
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Post by Andrew_S on Oct 28, 2017 21:00:25 GMT
1992 was a great year for the BBC. They produced the best ever election night show in my opinion, and followed it up with excellent coverage of the Barcelona Olympics, and then they did Ghostwatch on 31st October which I watched for the first time a couple of days ago and was scared by despite it being a quarter of a century old.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2017 21:26:14 GMT
The first election I saw fully was 2015 - I much prefer the 80s and 90s election coverage. It must've been quite something to see 1997 as it happened. 1987 was the first election that I can recall and I remember supporting the Tories primarily because I liked blue as a colour and red is associated with danger. At the time, I didn't know much about politics - just the basics like the Leaders of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. We were kept almost completely protected from the actual election campaign but our parents did buy us a book (unfortunately lost some time ago) that had short summaries of the marginal seats which at the time I showed little interest in but which became more useful as my political interests developed in the 1990s. On election night itself I managed to stay up to watch most of the coverage because my parents had promised to give us a day off school if we were good company for my mother. My father went to the count but (though he didn't tell me this until many years afterwards) he was disappointed with the result because the Tories had been hoping to get more than 50% of the vote and their vote share fell. He blamed Mrs Thatcher for the poor result as she was deeply unpopular on Merseyside by this point, even in Tory strongholds like ours. I would be very interested in acquiring a copy of that book. |
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Post by jigger on Oct 28, 2017 21:28:44 GMT
1987 was the first election that I can recall and I remember supporting the Tories primarily because I liked blue as a colour and red is associated with danger. At the time, I didn't know much about politics - just the basics like the Leaders of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. We were kept almost completely protected from the actual election campaign but our parents did buy us a book (unfortunately lost some time ago) that had short summaries of the marginal seats which at the time I showed little interest in but which became more useful as my political interests developed in the 1990s. On election night itself I managed to stay up to watch most of the coverage because my parents had promised to give us a day off school if we were good company for my mother. My father went to the count but (though he didn't tell me this until many years afterwards) he was disappointed with the result because the Tories had been hoping to get more than 50% of the vote and their vote share fell. He blamed Mrs Thatcher for the poor result as she was deeply unpopular on Merseyside by this point, even in Tory strongholds like ours. I would be very interested in acquiring a copy of that book. I would recognise the book were I to see a copy of it but, unfortunately I can't remember from memory the title. If I recall, the front cover had the heads of Mrs Thatcher, Mr Kinnock and the two Alliance leaders on it. |
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Post by johnloony on Oct 28, 2017 21:54:48 GMT
1992 was a great year for the BBC. They produced the best ever election night show in my opinion, and followed it up with excellent coverage of the Barcelona Olympics, and then they did Ghostwatch on 31st October which I watched for the first time a couple of days ago and was scared by despite it being a quarter of a century old. The 1992 election coverage was amusing because they put a lot of weight on the final poll (predicting a hung parliament) long after it had become obvious that it was inaccurate. I watched Ghostwatch when it was first broadcast (and I have watched it again since) and I remember being bemused by the reaction afterwards. It was advertised in advance as a drama (with a cast list in the Radio Times and in the credits at the end), and it was obvious that some of the actors (particularly the child actors) were acting rather than doing real life, yet lots of people complained as if they thought it was real. |
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Post by Andrew_S on Oct 28, 2017 22:36:03 GMT
I would be very interested in acquiring a copy of that book. I would recognise the book were I to see a copy of it but, unfortunately I can't remember from memory the title. If I recall, the front cover had the heads of Mrs Thatcher, Mr Kinnock and the two Alliance leaders on it. Was it the ITN guide to election night? I've got the 1992 and 1979 editions. The 1992 one taught me a lot about elections at the time, and I got the 1979 one a couple of years ago. |
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Post by johnloony on Oct 28, 2017 22:42:14 GMT
I'm sure I have that somewhere but despite going through all the VHS tapes I can place, it's not there. The fact that the tapes of two other 1996 byelections (Hemsworth and South East Staffordshire) are also missing shows that I put them aside in a safe place, then forgot where it was. Update: found them. Hence: In my by-election notebook at that time, I wrote down a few extra thoughts and statistics as well as the actual result. For Hemsworth, I wrote: Prediction, 1.11.95: Lab 17,100; LD 3,800; C. 1,700 Prediction, 30.1.96: Lab 20,500; LD 4,300; C. 1,700; OMRLP 550; SLP 450 I also notice that the Labour vote in 1996 ws only a handful different from what it was in 1991, although the other parties were much different. Arthur Scargill in interviews the next day kept saying that the SLP had held its deposit whereas Keir Hardie in his first election had lost his deposit. This was untrue because there were no deposits in those days, and in any case KH had got more than 5% anyway. PS. Where did you find the missing VHS tape? |
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Post by jigger on Oct 28, 2017 22:49:26 GMT
I would recognise the book were I to see a copy of it but, unfortunately I can't remember from memory the title. If I recall, the front cover had the heads of Mrs Thatcher, Mr Kinnock and the two Alliance leaders on it. Was it the ITN guide to election night? I've got the 1992 and 1979 editions. The 1992 one taught me a lot about elections at the time, and I got the 1979 one a couple of years ago. Yes it was by ITN - I think they called it a Factbook. |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Oct 29, 2017 8:35:29 GMT
I also had that book, long since disintegrated of course
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Post by The Bishop on Oct 29, 2017 11:47:34 GMT
Now that the trauma of the actual result has subsided (a bit) I watched the overnight BBC coverage of the 1992 election on YouTube a few years ago and was genuinely gripped - it was indeed excellent television. I'm biased of course, but IMO their 1997 coverage (which I have also watched on YT throughout) was top notch as well.
Things were never quite the same after that.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Oct 29, 2017 20:13:36 GMT
Here's the South East Staffordshire byelection special.
(Minus the last minute or so because my tape ran out but I don't think I missed anything interesting)
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