Election 2005 -Pre-Election discussion here

You're right that the line-up has not been announced , but of course it's been finalised ! It's ten weeks till the expected polling day - events like a General Election take months and months of planning and rehearsals for a major broadcaster. I'd expect all three of the main UK news networks to be well into their main rehearsals.

I imagine there'll also be Peter Snow with his obligatory "Swing-ometer".

Jonathan Dimbleby asked the work and pensions secretary Alan Johnson about the election date today - the minister joked that he didn't think that there was anything in the constitution which said that the PM had to consult the Dimblebys before calling an election...

That being because there isn't a constitution, perhaps.

At least not a written one.

I think it's a safe bet to say that Sky will have Adam Boulton presenting, Martin Stanford in virtual-o-rama and Jeremy Thompson doing extra interviews.

At Election 97, Stewart was doing the virtual HoC, so wouldn't surprise me to see him there again. It is pretty much the second most important role of the night - after finding out results, breaking that information down and displaying it in an understandable way.

Rehearsals for ITV's Election programme commence this week, hence why you are seeing some oddities on the News Channel and on ITV1 bulletins.

Banks of desks with computers have already graced the atrium floor, which will probably be used as the results centre. Studio 2 will host the main part of the program - expect lots of VR!

Is studio 2 the old ITV1 news studio that's currently used for the briefings? Or is it the main ITV1 news studio now? I get easily confused.

Studio 2 is the home of the 'theatre of news'. Studio 1 is the full VR studio.

my guess is they will extend the place where the desk is, and then have a long desk with a good gap at the end between the desk and newswall. i wonder what the titles would be like, mabey a bit like a ITV-NEWS-esq? with blue, red and orange squares instead of blue

i wonder what the bbc will do. 2-floor studio again?

I thought rehearsals had been going on for some time already?

Nope - They start this week. I still have no news on the line-up.

Speculation over! Mr Dimbleby is the main anchor of ITV's Election programme. In fact he is at Gray's Inn Road today for rehearsals.

Well there's a surprise.