1997 General Election

He was a reporter for BBC News. I've got a news bulletin on VHS tape from 1995 and he is one of the reporters.

He also used to be Northen Ireland reporter for BBC News 24 when it launched before becoming a Presenter.

Ah, well IIRC his report in that 1995 bulletin was from Northern Ireland, so that would make sense.

Thanks for the answer, I ratherly sadly have been watching (well listening whilst completely a lengthly Geography report) for about 10hours now - that is committment for you.

The coverage is so seamless, it is truly wonderful. They switch between David and Jeremy to give live pictures and interviews and light hearted chat. It doesn't seem to repeat itself or get stuck in a rut.

Yep - I'm watching on a slightly overscanned 16:9 display and there is a noticable black line top and bottom - not as big as a 14:9 letterbox bar - but noticable. Wonder why? Could it be the ARC they are using to convert to 16:9 has slightly odd settings?

How long has Dimbleby been on air for now? Bet he needed a good lie down after!

Did he? Could have sworn he and Kate Garraway shared 1900-2200 presentation duties - they were single-headed bulletins.

2001 is now (I think) the only election night they haven't shown (2005 was shown a couple of days after the event, not a great nostalgia trip but it was there). To be honest 2001 wasn't the most exciting election year (or programme) but it'd be nice to see it again. Can't help feeling it's so uneventful though that they might wait for a suitable anniversary...

Although to be honest I'd welcome any repeats because as a Freeviewer I've only been able to see this and 1992 in full frame!

Im 99% sure he was. I even remember the promo's in the early days advertising the fact. A bit like the new promo's that air now. It went something like "reporter name here" makes the difference on BBC News 24. Matthew was walking around the Stormont Building. Unless he was just on assignment but im sure i read that he was NI reporter for a while.

A third restart, don't remember that happening in other polls, I suppose the landslide ment that they could afford a formal News / Regional news break.

Weren't those the "personality promos" that were shown quite a while after News 24 launched.

They showed Gavin Esler wandering around Washington (as a former Washington Correspondent) and Matthew wandering around Stormont (as a former Northern Ireland Correspondent). They were aiming to make it clear that (some of) their presenters had been on the ground reporters first.

Were you an original analogue cable viewer - or did you start watching a year after launch? News 24 moved studios the day DSat and DTT launched, which was almost exactly a year after it launched on analogue cable (and BBC One overnight / BBC Two on weekend mornings)...

When was 92 shown? I missed that, damn it!