the basis of the early returns they will be able to predict the BBC outcome for each of the results to come. And from that, they can Election 70 calculate how many seats each party is likely to have in the new Parliament. With the most com- The kind of humour the plicated election situation for biggest- years, the official result may not be known for certain until well that chills you as ever news into Friday. BBC Election 70 will pay special attention to the 100 Key operation Seats - the marginals whose re- you laugh The BBC is mounting its biggest- sults will decide who wins the Where was Spring?: Sunday 11.25 BBC2 Colour ever news-gathering operation to Election; 30 Target Seats where bring you the results of the 1970 the other parties could gain Somewhere in the rule book to 6.0 pm. For the last series they General Election. For the first ground on Labour; and 100 Top it says that satirists and managed 35 sketches in the space time, BBCtv and Radio and the Politicians' contests. Together makers of brittle, sophisti- of three weeks. Press Association are pooling they make up a total of 230 Seats cated comedy do not live They work in what seems, de- their resources to report all 630 To Watch. in castles. Country cottages in spite the diligent office hours, a declarations. In Election Studio The girls in Election Studio Essex is stretching it some, flats curious manner. John keeps a One at the BBCtv Centre Cliff One will be wearing a special in Chelsea are OK, and just maybe notebook in which ideas for Michelmore heads a 57-strong Election 70 dress designed by the a house up the Thames Valley - sketches are written down. They team of commentators, inter- BBC's Linda Martin, who's taken but issuing hope-puncturing mis- can be merely a line saying man viewers and political experts time off from dressing The Young siles from a castle in Scotland is buying bed,' ' psychiatrist show- which moves into action when the Generation. There will be visits not allowed. Maybe the fellow ing self-pity,' or - a very .cryptic polls close at 10.0 pm and con- to an election night discotheque really doesn't like us and just to one - ' engine driver showing pic- tinues until Friday evening. in London's West End, with views prove it has taken himself right tures to black girl.' When the There will be regular Nationwide from some of the country's out of the very sight and smell of notebook is full enough they will coverage from 11 area news youngest voters and a few sur- us. And yet John Fortune and decide to start writing a sketch, desks, live colour outside broad- prise celebrities - and to Trafal- Eleanor Bron are proceeding to and pull one of these ideas out to casts from the early results and gar Square where the crowds will launch yet another attack on see what they can make of it. crucial marginals, and a computer be watching the Election results modern society from Fortune's results service which will be in colour on a giant screen show- feudal Highland stronghold. This Many of their best faster and more comprehensive ing BBC Election 70. week Fortune and Bron return to sketches, however, come than any before. BBC2 with a series of Where from combining ideas. The first declaration is ex- All this, and Andy Was Spring?, their half-hour pro- Eleanor, for example, before 11.0 pected shortly pm. Williams, Eric gramme of sketches that ridicule said she wanted to do one about With Baric computers in London Sykes, contemporary ideas of love and people who are governed by their and Manchester, linked with the Spike Milligan and romance. horoscopes and John wanted to BBC's own screen do printing device, Warren Mitchell There will be seven new shows one about people cast away on Anchor, full voting figures and in the series and a repeat of four a desert island. So they did one analysis will appear instantly. Begin watching BBC1 on Election of the previous series. John and about two superstitious people on Using freshly available data night with Movin' Along with Eleanor will again write and act a desert island. This, they say, from the 1966 sample census, Andy Williams at 9.10. Andy's in all the sketches. happens all the time. BBC Election 70 researchers at guests include Burt Bacharach, Eleanor likes sketches in which Nuffield College, Oxford, have Diahann Carroll, Jose Feliciano, The Fortune-Bron brand of there are no words or ones in for the first time computed the and Liza Minnelli. humour is sometimes hard which they speak in foreign lan- social and economic factors for And from 10.5 to 10.25, in The to take. Eleanor says the guages: John wanted to do a every constituency in Great Campaign's Over, Eric Sykes, sketches are really roman- sketch about a woman afraid of Britain. The BBC's commenta- Warren Mitchell and Spike Milli- tic because they are concerned snakes. The result is Cleopatra tors will be better placed than gan discuss the General Election with where love went to. ' They being frightened by the asp and ever before to analyse why each in the pause before the results are superficially cynical,' she says, screaming in Greek - Eleanor is place votes the way it does. On begin to come in. knitting as she talks, but basic- a Jewish girl and her Cleopatras ally they are romantic.' Watching always scream in Greek. her knitting there in the little Anyone who saw the last series Full radio too study where they write the will remember that scene where coverage, sketches she looks about as con- the man and the woman (John Election Special: Who Rules Bri- Street. Outside Broadcast units vincing as Madame Desfarge ex- and Eleanor speak of them main- tain? begins on Radio 4 at 10.30 will bring reports and comment plaining that she has nothing ly as He and She, Him and Her) from all pm, bringing you the vital re- parts of the country. against the aristos, really. ' If you are lying on a bed. They are sults fastest, with live coverage of Meanwhile, beginning at 11.1 pm are going to progress in a drama- lovers, in the happiest time of an of the crucial counts. The on Radios 1 and there will be many 2, tic fashion,' she says, ' it has to affair. Suddenly they start to Radio 4 team is experienced Night Ride to Westminster- get better or worse-and it speak. Both speak at once, say- headed BBC Political election in by Editor, news flashes, regular usually gets worse.' She pauses, ing the same line in unison: ' You Hardiman Scott; Anthony King, news summaries, occasional ten- knits one, purls two. ' 'Usually are just so wonderful! God! You Professor of Government at Essex minute summaries, mixed with when you peel off layers you find are just so beautiful! ' For three and National University; Opinion lively music presented by Ray out people are worse than they minutes they speak like that: and Poll Chairman, Michael Shields. Moore and Peter Donaldson. are.' there you have the whole modern to Broad- Flowing continuously On Radio 3 on Friday a full John's explanation for the love affair business exploded House will be an exclu- Results check will at 7 am. casting begin humour's hard edges is simpler: right before your very eyes. Love, sive service of election forecasts Over 200 results will be declared ' As soon as you start writing a self-love, narcissistic, deluded and from on and Radio 4's service analysis Computer Friday, happy scene it starts to brown fantasy took sudden flesh and in the heart of Fleet will at 10.30 am. Projects begin again around the edges.' It is true bone. The chemistry was right, enough; you cannot make jokes not only in the writing but also in the Turn to 14 for an RADIO TIMES about perfectly happy romances, performance. page 8-page Election just as you cannot make a West- Whole plays or novels often do Special. A map of the 100 Key Seats; how the results ern where the cowboys and the not have as much to say as one reach in 1.5 six farmers are friends and the of these sketches. you seconds; and pages listing all 630 The Bron-Fortune humour is constituencies with for to fill in the results Injuns come to tea. space you They work quickly, putting in something/Continued on page 9 as they come in. regular office hours from 10.0 am Photograph by martin BREESE Who's going to get in? The 100 Key Seats of the 1970 General Election The result will be decided in the 100 constituencies in which there is a real chance of the seat changing hands. BBC Election 70 will give these 100 Key Seats special attention. The RADIO TI M ES map shows where the 100 Key Seats are, area by area On these two there's lots of other information to pages help you, too; how the results reach you, a list of terms hear the the state of the you'll experts use, parties at Dissolution. On page 16 RADIO TIMES six- list of all 630 constituencies, with and a page facts, figures, space to fill in the results begins The Conservatives need a net gain of 33 seats from The areas Labour to remove Labour's overall majority.