Election 2005 -Pre-Election discussion here

You know your stuff - Jon Snow is on Channel4 News, an intelligent news choice, but as a fan of ITV News, you may find it a little hard going.

For BBC News lets see, we have Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Bruce, Andy Marr, Mark Mardell, Jeremy Vine, the list goes on, and I think to say that they are acting like they are nearly in their graves is harsh.

Back to the topic of the new studio - would hope it would be a better version than 2001s, although it wasn't too bad.

The dumbing down debate rolls on!

Oh come on....................

Dont even bother to speculate...............it'll be DAVID Dimblebey, MARR, PAXMAN, and a female..............fronting.

I wonder if the BBC will continue with their over exposure of Natasha Kaplinsky and put her in as part of the coverage...or whether they'll go for the same as last time option with Fiona Bruce.

Obviously ITV will lead with JD, but since Dermot used to be the main man in the virtual studio, I'd imagine that Mary/Katy 'Durham University' (you see what I did there...)/Nina will take that role this time?

Didn't Mary and Dermot do it last time - Mary doing the general bits and pieces and Dermot being in the "house of commons" - I do remember a very impressive walkout of the virtual studio into the election studio at the time.

I assume Nick Robinson will have the John Seargeant role of sitting with JD this time around, and perhaps Ali the main man in the thick of things dragging the politicans in and giving them a good going over. I want to see Stewart Vs Reid Part II.

It'd be rather more heavyweight than most of the stuff she's doing these days. It probably all depends on whether she gets a better offer of a guest appearance on Chucklevision on the day.

Dermot only came on board (2001) because Alastair Stewart (1987, 1992, 1997) wasn't around. No doubt Alastair will be back this year, but don't expect him to be grilling politicians, he'll be doing something with a computer, a battleground, or a swingometer.

BTW, I'm all in favour of greater exposure of Natasha.

Is that possible without actually cloning her?

Will be interesting to see if Alistair Stewart does get a role this time. With Dermot now gone, hard to see how they couldn't draft him in.

He was the 'virtual' guy in the 1997 election, with a pop-up House of Commons.

From memory, wasn't Dermot's HoC originally intended for the BBC and they then sold it to ITN? I seem to remember someone mentioning that on here about 4 years ago!

I imagine Sky will be entirely virtual again, as they have been at the last two elections. Will be more interesting to see whether they adopt an entirely new graphics package exclusively for the election, then ditch it a month or two later when they go into the new place.

As for Kaplinsky, she's probably going to get the Kay Burley role, and fly around in a helicopter all day interviewing ''normal folk''. Can't imagine they would dare to pass her off as a serious journalist.

There's going to be slightly less "rivalry" between the Beeb and ITN this year, as for the first they have commissioned a joint exit poll.

I think this year's teams will consist of the following:

ITV News - Studio

Jonathan Dimbleby
Alastair Stewart
Nick Robinson
Mary Nightingale

BBC News - Studio

David Dimbleby
Jeremy Paxman
Andrew Marr
Fiona Bruce

I wonder if FIVE will take Sky's coverage this year? Any ideas?

I doubt it. Not really the type of thing that Five would want to show.

I wouldn't rule it out. I'm sure that Sky would love to have an analogue outlet for their election coverage, and Five might decide that it's worth carrying for the political prestige factor alone - even if it's not going to be a huge ratings-grabber.