TV coverage of elections

[timmullen1]

I would guess 1979 may be problematic as the date clashes with the “real” local elections this year, but on the other hand if Dimbleby is retiring, as his first election as anchor it probably has an improved chance.

Am I correct in recalling the February 1974 was shown at very short notice as a tribute when Alastair Burnet passed away?

I agree though that there’s not much chance of anything on BBC Parliament, but either way I think we should do our own.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

BBC Parliament really need to do a new transfer of 1979 as their existing one is in a slightly off aspect ratio - the vertical part has been compressed to less than 576 with black bars at the top and bottom.

One of the bugbears was that the repeats often got the aspect ratio wrong - stretching a 4:3 picture to 16:9, or blowing it up to fill 14:9 and losing the lower part of the picture which includes the results captions.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

[Davıd Boothroyd]

[Lord Twaddleford]

Feb 9, 2019 22:51:07 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

And at around the 20-25 minute mark we have the appearance of a young Janet Finch-Saunders, here coming in third in Wrexham, and has since gone on to ooze slime all over Aberconwy as its current AM...

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Some vintage Theresa May in this one.

[The Bishop]

Nothing has changed?

[johnloony]

Feb 15, 2019 9:17:37 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Some vintage Theresa May in this one.

Me walking across the screen (right to left) at 9:31 to 9:36
and again (left to right) from 9:46 to 9:49
and again (left to right) from 34:38 to 34:43
and scrutinising the counters at 25:11, 25:40, 25:54, 1:29:41

At c.30 minutes the presenter is commenting on the unwieldy large ballot papers. As you can see from the footage, the count itself was badly organised in that the actual counting area was squashed into only about a third of the area of the hall; the counters were squashed together very close to each other; they were sorting the ballot papers into ad-hoc piles without any labelled trays to sort them into. As such it was probably the worst-organised election count I've ever been to.

Incidentally, I was given a lift back to Croydon after the count by Winston McKenzie, who was an independent candidate in the by-election.

Incidentally incidentally, the Socialist Labour Party candidate was the late Iris Cremer, who a year later became one of the "Gang of Five" who broke away from the SLP to be the founding members of the CPGB(ML). I remember explaining to some of my fellow Loonies at the count that the SLP was the Stalinist lot, whereas the Socialist Alliance was the Trotskyist lot.

[pragmaticidealist]

I had a vague and apparently false memory that Theresa May was (very slightly) less robotic in front of the media in the pre-Coalition days.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Most of the overnight coverage of 2005, as seen on C-SPAN2, has turned up on Youtube:

[Andrew_S]

Feb 20, 2019 22:37:23 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

It was a bit cringeworthy to watch the candidates trying very hard not to come across to the public as anoraks and failing miserably, for example by using phrases like "this is a marginal" when saying "it's going to be a close election" would have been less confusing for ordinary voters.

[mondialito]

Not an election as such, but highlights of the 1979 No Confidence debate are currently being played on BBC Parliament to mark its 40th Anniversary.

[Andrew_S]

I can't find the October 1974 BBC election show from 1am onwards. Does anyone know if it's still available anywhere?

[Andrew_S]

I've never seen a newly-elected MP getting mobbed in the counting hall by supporters like Gwyneth Dunwoody was in Exeter in 1966.

At 1 hour, 19 mins, 15 secs:

[Harry Hayfield]

General Election Anniversaries of 2019:
1959: 60th anniversary
1964: 55th anniversary
1974: 45th anniversary
1979: 40th anniversary

Bank Holidays in the UK for 2019
New Year's Day: No broadcast
Easter Monday: No broadcast
May Day: No information
Spring Holiday: No information
Summer Holiday: No information
Christmas Day: No information
Boxing Day: No information

In other words, if there is no election archive broadcast by the Spring Bank Holiday, there will not be enough time to broadcast them all.

[LDCaerdydd]

Apr 21, 2019 20:49:03 GMT Harry Hayfield said:

General Election Anniversaries of 2019:
1959: 60th anniversary
1964: 55th anniversary
1974: 45th anniversary
1979: 40th anniversary

Bank Holidays in the UK for 2019
New Year's Day: No broadcast
Easter Monday: No broadcast
May Day: No information
Spring Holiday: No information
Summer Holiday: No information
Christmas Day: No information
Boxing Day: No information

In other words, if there is no election archive broadcast by the Spring Bank Holiday, there will not be enough time to broadcast them all.

Good news:

[AdminSTB]

Apr 26, 2019 16:14:01 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Apr 21, 2019 20:49:03 GMT Harry Hayfield said:

General Election Anniversaries of 2019:
1959: 60th anniversary
1964: 55th anniversary
1974: 45th anniversary
1979: 40th anniversary

Bank Holidays in the UK for 2019
New Year's Day: No broadcast
Easter Monday: No broadcast
May Day: No information
Spring Holiday: No information
Summer Holiday: No information
Christmas Day: No information
Boxing Day: No information

In other words, if there is no election archive broadcast by the Spring Bank Holiday, there will not be enough time to broadcast them all.

Good news:

An historical election, detailed results given but as far as election coverage goes it's surprisingly dull overall.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

[afleitch]

Apr 27, 2019 18:21:44 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

I missed all this at the time; I was stuck at the count in East Kilbride. With my blue rosette :/