The night watchmen cameras and Election97 with all its rosette-bestrewn triumphs, nail-chew- Computers, and tearful had ThursdayBBC1, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live ing suspense disappointments, taken its first tentative bow in the nation's sit- endless coffee - the stage Back in 1922, only a few hours after it ting-room. At 9.55pm on Thursday, presenters broadcasts of David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Pax- is set at the BBC for the began regular any kind, Jeremy the BBC announced the first result of man at TV Centre - and James Naughtie down that year's General Election. The Tories the road in Broadcasting House for Radios 4 and biggestshow of the year. had held Wallasey, with Sir RB Chad- 5 Live - will be fully aware of their place in the wick polling 17,500 against his Liberal history of broadcasting when they embark on the WilliamGreaves watched opponent's 9,984. latest chapter of a BBC tradition which began so Apparently exhausted by this pioneering tremulously 75 years ago. thestars ofElection 97 achievement, a few minutes later the 2LO station "Although it's still all about politicians and closed down for the night. But the die was cast. trends and people clearing their throats and say- rehearse forthe bignight The British electoral system's night of destiny, i ing, 'I, the returning officer,' the interesting thing about election night is that each one is different wizardry at the team's fingertips, however, Dim- half-hour break in the Election 97rehearsal. But from the one before," says 58-year-old David Dim- bleby insists that he thinks more as a journalist crouched over his computer keyboard, Snow is bleby at the big dress rehearsal for the event. He than as an election specialist, and prefers the unable to resist another explorative jab while no should know. Even if older viewers regard him as storytelling to the statistics. one is watching. Dimbleby Junior (his father, Richard, fronted the And have all possible accidents been super- He is, of course, the first to admit what all his 1955 programme, when so many viewers spotted annuated by expertise, or does that storytelling fans have long suspected. "Oh yes, I do get a ter- the telephone on his desk and tried to ring it that still contain tales of the unexpected? "Oh yes, rific schoolboy thrill from all this," he says. "It is the GPO had to unblock the BBC's jammed ex- we always get something we didn't bargain for," not so much like operating a swingometer any change), he's been in the number one seat every he acknowledges with a grin. Like the occasion more, it's more like viewing the whole battle zone year since the start of Margaret Thatcher's reign when the camera homed in to find him literally through virtual reality glasses, panning through in 1979 and has missed being involved on the big speechless - with lips sealed by a mouthful of the foothills of the marginal seats, watching the night only once since 1964. Mars bar. "And during an earlier rehearsal, the colours change, even staring through the door- "It is remarkable how quickly the whole oc- phone in front of me rang on several occasions way of Number 10..." casion has developed," says Dimbleby. "Back in with a man on the other end increasingly deter- Back behind the scenes, graphic designers 1979, we still had a swingometer with a big ar- mined to book a table at an Indian restaurant!" Mike Afford and Ceri Kashita strive to live up row which had to be moved from side to side, and While Dimbleby provides all the appropriate to Snow's expectations. "We've tried to design psephologist David Butler worked out the swing gravitas, it is left to Peter Snow to supply the boy- things in such a way that Peter can pull up any- with a slide rule. Now the picture comes up much ish enthusiasm and to reflect the end-of-term mood thing he wants, whenever he wants," says faster, the regional interpretations are much more of a nation which has survived six weeks of wall- Afford. Kashita grins. "The man is surreal," she accurate and I have so much information on the to-wall electioneering. He will not disappoint. says. "He grasps whatever we throw at him so screen in front of me that it would be impossible TV Centre's Studio One is virtually aban- quickly - it's amazing." to use more than a hundredth of it on the night." doned following a rush for the nearest refresh- This time around, Afford and Kashita have Despite a bewildering amount of technological ments when producer Peter Horrocks calls a : depicted Labour's target seats as building blocks, the lowest being the ones requiring the and talk to whoever turns up. For the first few least swing to capture from the Tories, the higher be- hours, I suppose that can only be people who are ing the hardest to win. A touch of the button and the not standing themselves - David Steel, perhaps, and vast studio screen explodes like the Battle of Britain possibly Emma Nicholson or Douglas Hurd ... and the Blitz rolled into one. people like that. Anyone who has something inter- The man "And here you see how each result comes up with esting to say." the appropriate logo on the map," says Afford. "And A little difficult to prepare questions, I venture, theBBC's solid if it is a gain, the logo spins round. Why does it spin when you have no idea to whom they are to be di- Why round? It spins round because we know how to make rected. "I rather take the view that if you can't think on it spin round - and at four or five in the morning of what to ask then you shouldn't be taking the coveragedepends to awake somehow!" comes the no-nonsense from you've got keep people money," typically reply the facts At the delivery end of all these computerised py- a broadcaster who expects no more charity than he fascinating rotechnics, for the fourth time since his BBC election is prepared to dish out. night debut in 1983, Snow knows all too clearly Although it has taken the sad death of that election- and figures unearthed where his duties lie. "My own view is that we don't day institution, Brian Redhead, to bring him "inside" have enough time for factual background," he says. for the first time on results night, 45-year-old James by BILLBUSH and the "But the editor is so determined to have a quick-fire Naughtie, the Caledonian voice of Radio 4's Today programme that no matter how complex the scene is programme, is no stranger to the turmoil of general PoliticalResearch Unit in the South East, say, I know I've got precisely 30 elections. After covering the 1974 poll as a trainee seconds to get it across. That's the beauty of graphics. journalist in Newcastle, he was political correspon- Maybe it's the altitude of A table of figures is OK, but it is terribly difficult for dent at The Scotsman in 1979 and 1983, chief politi- their bustling little pent- people to read, so all the time you are looking for cal correspondent at The Guardian in 1987 and house hideaway, over- more and more colourful ways of bringing the bat- looked after the whole of the 1992 trail for Today's looking Westminster tlefield to life on the screen." sister lunchtime programme, The World at One. Abbey and the tower of And this year, to give an additional touch of pi- "It is a remarkable night, full of elements of soap the House of Lords, that quancy to the swelling scene, Jeremy Paxman's dis- opera, bits of showbiz and, above all, terrific stories reminds you of a dray of squirrels, tinctive brand of snake-tongued cross-examination of real importance to the whole country," he says. busily gathering and storing away is spooned into the mixture for the first time. "If I "Because radio doesn't need film crews on the succulent goodies for a rainy day. weren't involved in the programme, I would certainly spot, it can reach almost everywhere over the tele- But the longer you spend in their be sitting at home watching with a glass or two of phone in an instant. company the more appropriate the whisky," says the 46-year-old Newsnight inquisitor. "And there comes a time during the night when the analogy becomes. The goodies are "I love it because it's the one time when all these ap- central characters seem to relax, forget about a multitude of snippets about can- parently omniscient figures don't know what is about the millions of people out there and start talking didates, constituencies and soap- to happen to them - the one time when they are at the about success and failure as though they are pon- box serendipity, stored in computers, mercy of the voters rather than the voters being at the dering over a whisky by the fireside. This is one reference books and on the internet, mercy of them." time when nothing needs tarting up - it's real, it's for whenever the craving for such And his role on the night? "To catch any crumbs naked, it's everyone's life being decided for the next information needs satisfying - and that David Dimbleby tosses in my direction," he five years or so." the squirrels are Bill Bush and his says with the demoniacal grin which has become his They're ready, they're genned-up and, at 9.55pm BBC Political Research Unit.