The Newsroom

1997 General Election

BBC Parliament - 7 May 2007 (April 2007)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RO
roo
I'm actually a little surprised that there were no astons in '97 whenever a result was declared, especially seeing as they even had this back in 92.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
There were - the version we're seeing today was recorded upstream of the aston machine, so that footage of interviews was "clean" to be reused on other programmes at a later date. The fact that the BBC logo was due to change a few months later may or may not have played a part in that.
IS
Inspector Sands
What would be really useful on these replays is a clock to indicate the time of the original broadcast
BH
BillyH Founding member
Sometimes if you look at the monitors behind the presenters, you can see the held/gain astons appear and disappear as on the original broadcast.

Fascinating viewing, as an eight year old I remember watching Have I Got News For You and the Election Night Armistice, but I didn't see this. That moment with all the Labour lot fighting to open that wine bottle, intercut with live footage of D-Ream's "Things Can Only Get Better" was absolutely legendary!

And if anyone has a good version of that awesome synth version of the Election theme played during the 'story so far' bits, I'd love to have it!
RO
roo
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There were - the version we're seeing today was recorded upstream of the aston machine, so that footage of interviews was "clean" to be reused on other programmes at a later date. The fact that the BBC logo was due to change a few months later may or may not have played a part in that.

Ah ha - well that makes sense - cheers for clearing that up Smile
TI
tightrope78
Inspector Sands posted:
What would be really useful on these replays is a clock to indicate the time of the original broadcast


During the 1992 coverage there was a clock on the giant screen.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
During the news round-ups, the 1979 election coverage also made use of a rather large clock, which unusually seems to have been courtesy of the presentation department.

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/suelawleyclock.jpg
TI
tightrope78
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/Chriswoods1978/1992.jpg

I meant the clock in the top right hand corner here.
AD
adamcobb55
For those that are interested we skipped breakfast news and are now at 9AM on Fri May 2 1997
NE
NEWS 24
What happened during breakfast in 1997, seeing as they cut it out? Also, how many OBs did they use for the coverage, they seem to have loads of live shots around the country.
NG
noggin Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
noggin posted:
Those of you with PC capture cards or tellies with no overscan should keep an eye on the top line of the picture. See if you can spot red and green lines and work out what they were there for!


My guess before watching the programme was that they were to do with the regional switching centres which would have played a big part in the OBs since 1997 was before SNGs were so commonplace, either identifying where a particular contribution was being hubbed through or cueing a change of source at the remote switching centre.

However having seen it it looks like it's to do with the graphics showing the result of each count. Looks like the red is used to identify that whatever kit is producing those is selected on the vision mixer and it goes green when the results have been keyed in and the effect is ready to run.


Yep - pretty much. The red line indicated that the result graphic was not yet available, when it turned green it meant it could be used. The DVE effects were programmed so that the top line of the backing was visible before the "push back" AIUI.
SC
scottishtv Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There were - the version we're seeing today was recorded upstream of the aston machine, so that footage of interviews was "clean" to be reused on other programmes at a later date. The fact that the BBC logo was due to change a few months later may or may not have played a part in that.

I've noticed that the same thing happens when the nations' political programmes (Politics Scotland, Dragon's Eye, Hearts and Minds) are repeated on Sundays on BBC Parliament. It can be a bit frustrating to watch when you don't know who the speaker on screen is (esp. when you are trying to work out which party holds which view on some occasions).

However, I do accept there are probably only about ten of us ever watching these shows at any one time on BBC Parliament.

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