OT: 1964 General Election on BBC Parliament

[Mike Royden]

Now On BBC Parliament. I not able to see it. Anyone want to report back on it. Whats the quality of the picture like and content.

A chance to relive the historic General Election of 1964 presented by Richard Dimbleby, with interviews by Robin Day, Cliff Michelmore and Sir David Frost

On all day by the looks of it.
4 Jan 2004


Mike

[David Boothroyd]

It's a fairly standard telerecording, occasional dropouts in the early part, and some of the soundtrack was very scratchy. There is no better version of the 1964 election programme, as no VT was made. ITN did however keep a tape which is subject to occasional glitches but looks stunning. You can find the log by searching www.itnarchive.co.uk.

What has been shown is continuous from 9:25 PM on election night to about 4:11 AM (when the overnight programme ended), and then picking up the morning programme from 10:55 AM until it ended (I assume) at 6 PM.

[Westy]

Any plans for previous repeats to be reshown, as I didn't hear about them until after the event ?

What elections exist then ? (Both Beeb & ITV)

[dubs]

Did you notice the strange speeding up at one point with total loss of picture and Dimbleby rasing his voice to ultra-soprano?

Looks like the TR was made off a 405 quad and someone had rested their coffee on the FF lever/button.

Certainly nothing couldhave happened likethis if it was TR'd live, unless they had VT inserts for some results.

Thoughts anyone?

[David Boothroyd]

Guest-Westy said:

Any plans for previous repeats to be reshown, as I didn't hear about them until after the event ?

What elections exist then ? (Both Beeb & ITV)

The BBC have telerecordings of 1955, 1959, 1964 and 1966,
and VT of all from 1970 to date. The programmes of 1950 and 1951 were not telerecorded and are lost.

ITN has a (very good quality) telerecording of 1959, and VT of all from 1964 to date. Though the log of 1966 in the ITN archive says that part of the programme is missing.

BBC Parliament has done several reruns. It did 1979 and 1997 in September 2002, and 1970 and 1974 (February) in September last year. The channel has also shown the telerecording of the full Coronation ceremony more than once.

[David Boothroyd]

Guest-dubs said:

Did you notice the strange speeding up at one point with total loss of picture and Dimbleby rasing his voice to ultra-soprano?

Looks like the TR was made off a 405 quad and someone had rested their coffee on the FF lever/button.

Certainly nothing couldhave happened likethis if it was TR'd live, unless they had VT inserts for some results.

I don't think so. I think it was TR'd live and this was the end of a film reel. BBC Parliament edited all the other joins out, but this one must have been missed. Just after this moment, the action picked up about a minute before and played through with no problems.

There were a very few VT inserts in the programme, including an interview with Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home at Scone Airport. But I think it very unlikely the programme was videotaped at any point.

[dubs]

So this was (or should have been) an edit between two Trs?

Honestly didnt notice it jumping back to the previous reel, was too busy watching the graphics.

Does the 1970 election exist on colour VT?

I would have presumed so.

[David Boothroyd]

Guest-dubs said:

Does the 1970 election exist on colour VT?

Yes - as you would have seen if you watched BBC Parliament last September.

There was a big problem getting various sources in sync in 1970 and so every time there was a cut to a source outside the studio there was an enormous glitch in the recording while the VTR tried to work out what was happening.

[Pam Rostron]

BBC Parliament will be showing the 1979 election on 3 May, exactly 25 years to the day. It will also be screening 4 hours of OB coverage of Churchill's Funeral on Sunday 30th January 2005, 40 years after the event.

If anyone can think of any other momentous events, parliament related, that might also be covered, please post them here and I'll pass them on to my contact at BBC Parliament.

[dubs]

Would be interested in seeing the unsuccessful 1979 devolution count Pam.

Cheers.

[Philip Mullen]

Guest-Pam said:

BBC Parliament will be showing the 1979 election on 3 May, exactly 25 years to the day. It will also be screening 4 hours of OB coverage of Churchill's Funeral on Sunday 30th January 2005, 40 years after the event.

If anyone can think of any other momentous events, parliament related, that might also be covered, please post them here and I'll pass them on to my contact at BBC Parliament.

That is great news - thanks for passing that on Pam!
Now if only BBC Parliament could be convinced that telerecorded OB events *really* need VidFIRE to provide the proper viewing experience
Oh yes, and to run them full-screen on Freeview Ch. 701 or 702, as these are rarely used when the Parliament Specials are broadcast.
Slightly infuriating that we only get a 1/4 screen image when there are two channels on the same mux. showing placecards!

Philip.

[Mike S]

I'd like to see the 1983 election myself - in fact, wasn't this planned and then pulled?

Why do all these election still exist anyway? Wouldn't they have been considered 'ephemeral' like a lot of other stuff?

Anyone know what the earliset one to survive is?

[David Boothroyd]

Guest-Mike said:

I'd like to see the 1983 election myself - in fact, wasn't this planned and then pulled?

Why do all these election still exist anyway? Wouldn't they have been considered 'ephemeral' like a lot of other stuff?

Anyone know what the earliset one to survive is?

I was originally emailed by a BBC Parliament employee to say that 1983 was going to be shown last September, but it didn't get shown. I don't know why but my guess is that a Lords sitting that week took the time.

Election night programmes certainly aren't "TV ephemera". There are three very good reasons why TV companies would have taken special care to keep them:

1) They are important current affairs events. Politicians are unusually candid on election night interviews (because the next election is furthest away). If you'll pardon the cliche, election nights are times when you can reasonably expect the unexpected.

2) Election night programmes were very, very, big events. They had to involve the largest number of outside broadcasts and the longest broadcast time for any event which occurred frequently and would have to be covered by broadcasters.

3) Election programmes were also very often times for technological experiments. ITN used permanent on-screen information for the first time in the 1964 election; the BBC attempted the first live interview from a train in 1966 (Harold Wilson refused to do it); the BBC used computer visual presentation in 1970 and ITN in 1974 had the first visual display computer. And so it goes on.

As far as archive holdings go, only two election night programmes are entirely lost: the BBC for 1950 and 1951 (when telerecording was in its infancy; they were not recorded). The BBC has telerecordings for 1955, 1959, 1964 and 1966 and VT for all since 1970.

ITN has a (very good quality) telerecording of 1959, and VT from 1964 onwards - though part of 1966 appears to be missing. You can read the tape logs for 1964 and 1966 on the ITN Archive website.

[Mike S]

Thanks for the info.

That wasn't me calling the broadcasts 'ephemera' by the way - I just assumed that this is how the BBC would have viewed them. After all, they (wrongly) felt this way about so many other programmes.