Election 2010

Yes, I rewatched a bit of Sky's coverage the other day, and it spent over a minute flying through their space and showing how big and impressive it is. It doesn't quite extol the virtues of a smaller production. If anything, it's a bit of a homage to the ITV atrium sets.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the BBC's 1992 Election set myself - the 2005 set, for me, didn't quite live up to that. It felt more old-fashioned than the 2001 set that preceded it.

The 2010 set then felt like a huge jump. I just wish they'd not given up on the excellent election music from 2010 - the 2005 mix was insipid, and whilst Vote 2001's theme was quintessentially early 2000s (and therefore a bit naff), 2005 didn't do much to improve upon it.

The virtual extensions to Studio B really didn’t work for the election set IMO. I think they would have been better off using Studio E and the surrounding newsroom, although obviously I don’t know how feasible that would have been. A larger desk in E, with Andrew Neil up on the weather balcony and Rita Chakrabati using a touchscreen in the newsroom itself would have looked quite effective, whilst giving the coverage the sense of scale the virtual extensions were trying to achieve.

Studio E and the newsroom is an impressive space in itself (as impressive as Sky Central I’d argue), so it is a shame it wasn’t used during the election coverage.

I noticed the other day that Jago have shared some early mock-ups of the concept for the election set on their website, which do look much better than the final product:




It looks like they'd initially suggested added something akin to a virtual gallery, which fits in much better - looks like there was also initially an extension to the screens around the desk.

There are a couple of other interesting mock-ups on their website too, including a full animated draft of the sequence that preceded the exit poll in Sky News' 2019 GE coverage (including virtual Sky HQ), and an early version of the updated ITV News at 10 set, complete with some slightly strange titlecards...

Interesting seeing the mock-ups of Sky News’ 2019 election coverage including images of Theresa May - I wonder just how long they’d had it all planned?

The second video on the link that shows some of the highlights brings back just what a brilliant job they did. I’m still holding out hope that it was a pointer towards where they plan on taking the channel next time it gets a refresh (which hopefully won’t be far off given we presumably have a new logo coming very soon). Election night had amazing pace, and it looked and sounded fantastic.

Well I think we'd been seemingly possibly weeks away from another election pretty much ever since the 2017 election. Looking at the Jaco site I see Sky News Arabia had a nice revamp last year - the original really is the poor relation when it comes to set design.

The end of that video says 'Vote 2020', which would've been an election year if May hadn't called the snap election in 2017 (quite handy given the current circumstances, now I think of it!) - don't think it would've been that long ago, though..?

In fact if things had gone as they were intended to there would have probably have been a general election today.

There's a whole alternative universe out there where Coronavirus happened at the end of a 5 year old government with everyone trying to work out how to do an election and its coverage safely

We'll never know but its equally plausible the 5 year old Parliament could have been extended, like they did for World War II, which had seen an election in 1935 and another one wasn't held until 1945, two months or so after the war ended.

The parliament wasn't extended that time though. When Neville Chamberlain quit (not that he would've continued much longer anyway as he died by the end of the year), Winston Churchill formed a coalition government instead of a Conservative one, with Labour leader Clement Attlee, who would go on to win the 1945 election, as his deputy.

Changing the PM, or indeed forming a 'National Government', doesn't extend the term of a Parliament.


Under the Septennial Act 1716 (as amended by the Parliament Act 1911) there was a 5 year restriction on the lifetime of any elected Parliament. The 1716 Act wasn't repealed fully until 2011.

During WW2, there were annual 'Prolongation of Parliament' Acts which performed the purpose of delaying an election. It had nothing to do with who was leading it.


Indeed, and I wonder now under the 'Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011' whether we would be faced with the same issue as the USA, who constitutionally CANNOT move the appointment of a new President in January 2021 - the previous incumbent simply ceases to hold office on 20 January 2021. I think the role goes to the President of the Senate. Weird world scenarios.


How will broadcasters in the USA deal with these issues later this year if COVID-19 continues to have an impact on their ability to 'vox-pop' the electorate?

If the EU Referendum hadn't happened and relative stability held, parliament would have been amending to move the election which was due to take place this month.

Not sure if mentioned already, but some fantastic news - another four classic elections will be repeated on the channel in May, all on Saturdays!

9 May 1930-2330: 1959
16 May 1000-2330: 1964
23 May 0900-2359: 1979
30 May 0900-2310: 1997

All have been reshown in recent years, with 1997 getting its first repeat since May 2017 and 1964 (with that brilliant Robin Day/George Brown interview and Richard Dimbleby on top form) its first since October 2014.

The 1970 election has been absent on the channel since its 40th anniversary airing in 2010, but I'm hopeful that'll be one reshown in June as it happened on the 18th of that month.