oimes 35 Marylebone High Street. London W1M 4AA Tel 01-580 5577 Published by Journals Division of BBC Enterprises Ltd Vol 253 No 3315 BBC Enterprises Ltd 1987 Editor Brian Gearing Deputy � Art Editor Brian Thomas Programme Editor Hugo Martin Features Editor Veronica Hitchcock Planning Editor Francesca Serpell ELECTION87 4 TheBattleground PeterSnow's 102 vital seats 6 First Results Who'llbe first past the polls? 8 HungParliaments AnthonyKing asks if they 're good for'What matters is the night' the constitution Anthony King, P 8 SHORTLY BEFORE 8.0 one Thursday evening have hitches: what matters is the night.' Tait is 10 Out of the House in April, some 150 employees put their clocks enthusiastic about the technology at his team's MPs ^gst who'IImiss forward by three hours and pretended it was 11 disposal: 'We're introducing some of the most tne jt^^^t^ Commonstouch June. BBCtv and Radio's full-scale General advanced equipment available - elections are 11 Carrott Election rehearsal was under way. ideally suited for computer animation.' ^^^^H� Jasper plays party games Of course, the results being processed by The names of every single candidate have ^^^H massed ranks of VDU weren't been in the General Election since 12 Grand Prix operators real; computer ^^^^Hf when returning officers read out voting figures, nominations closed on 27 May, and every result, ^^^^^m competition and successful candidates made grateful once declared, will be instantly available not 13 The Secret File speeches or gave triumphant interviews, all only to BBCtv and Radio studios but also to on Citizen K parts were in fact played by BBC reporters and everyone with a teletext set. 'The moment a ^HnflMk. presenters their skills to the full in in the result from constitu- An American using acting reporter phones any AUsSrCooke, p 14 a Television Centre studio. Graham of Ceefax, 'it will go nightmare ency,' says Clayton But in the next-door studio - and a few miles first to the election computer and then be ^^VIHH14Alistair Cooke away in Broadcasting House - it was as if transferred automatically to Ceefax for immedi- His in election ^^H^g|^^^^H rhapsody night had come. David Dimbleby ate broadcast.' Gershwin fronted ^^^^H^^^^^H effortlessly; Peter Snow summoned up Meanwhile, the BBC's different election pro- the latest in computer graphics; and Anthony grammes will be making sense of it all: on BBC1 ^^^^^^M15Robert Hardy King speculated on what the (fictional) Chelten- (from 10.0) David Dimbleby and his team - TheFraynandthe ^^^^^^^^^^B ham result would mean if nationwide. which in 1983 led ITV over a million pleasure repeated by viewers; ^^^^^^^^^P^H Sir Robin Day was elsewhere, but a stand-in on Radio 4 (from 10.0) Brian Redhead, Susannah ^^^|rfl16HearThisi quizzed party leaders (in fact, three candidates Simons, David Butler and Peter Hill; and on willing to enter into the of the Radio 2 with a of IHIH^/flLl17Win a cruise spirit evening). (from 11.0, garnish music) Was the rehearsal a success? Bob Doran of Jimmy Young and Brian Curtois. 15 Robert Hardy, p 19 Films Radio News, whose job it has been to ensure Not to mention all the BBC's local radio there's a BBC person at every count for the and Radios Scotland, Ulster, Wales and La belle equipe stations, 19 nation's 650 constituencies, thinks so: 'Both the Cymru. 'Literally a cast of thousands,' said John ^^^^Hr^^k: £** Thegift of Gabin computer and the BBC's telephone system Williams, BBC Radio's Election Editor, as he ^^^m )| coped. Admittedly, some things went wrong, but broke off from yet another planning meeting. PROGRAMMES we found out what we needed to know.' On the agenda were arrangements for feeding 20 Richard Yours Tait, BBCtv's election supremo, the Broadcasting House production staff fHi^fc'k \MK74 Locally agrees: 'Preparing for a programme as compli- through the night of 11 June. Did BBC Catering 77 Info, Frequencies cated as this is a learning process. Rehearsals do have their own rehearsal? JOHNDAVIES 79 Recipe Times jflHLrBWi �m80 Letters PaulHogan,p82 81�� Woddis ^^^^^_^^ Roger Crossword ^^^^^^^HH ^^^^^K982PaulHogan ^^^^^Pm^Rjfl Fighting talkfrom L^Bflfljk ifc^^B CrocodileDundee J 85 Aretha Franklin ???? Her ^^H^BhML^H souland ^^^^^^^^K^^ inspiration 86 John Craven's Aretha Franklin, p 85 Back Pages IT'S GOING to be an exciting night, Thursday, when the votes are counted. What's at stake is whether Mrs Thatcher can set a 20th-century record by winning a third term for her Conserva- tive party, which has coloured Britain's political map bluer than it's been since the last war. The smaller map above shows the House of Commons as it looked when the Prime Minister fired the starting gun for the General Election race last month: 393 Conservative seats - three- quarters of them in the Midlands and the south; 206 Labour seats - only 60 of them south of Yorkshire. Outside London, Labour holds only three seats in the south of England - tiny pinpoints of red on the map at Thurrock in Essex, Ipswich in Suffolk and Bristol South. The Alliance's 27 seats (orange for Liberal, white for SDP) are scattered from Caithness at the very top of Scotland down to Truro in the toe of England, which the Liberals successfully defended three months ago. Labour's task is to win all 68 of these seats (and lose none them- that, in order to replace Mrs Thatcher in stage a massive comeback in the Midlands and selves) they'll have robbed Mrs Thatcher of her Number Ten, Neil Kinnock needs to gain 117 the south: the most fertile ground for the Alliance majority: she needs 326 for an overall majority, seats to win an overall majority. Labour have to is further north - in the north-east and Scotland. which is 67 less than the 393 her party held at pick up seats where they're far less well placed The other map (above right) shows the 102 the dissolution of the last Parliament. than in these, and where they're challenging seats where the election will be won or lost. So, as the results are declared, note which some Tory majorities of over 9,000. Most of them are blue, Conservative seats that Conservative marginals the Tories hold, and the On the right of the map are listed the other Mrs Thatcher's party must hold if she is to be Opposition gain, and if the gains are reaching parties' marginal seats. The Conservatives were sure of retaining power. These are the 68 seats down as far as, say, Harlow - (number 57) or only 71 votes behind Labour in Carlisle. Labour we've listed on the left of the map - the Bury South (62), then we may be in for a hung would fall to the smallest shift towards the Conservative marginals, from Leicester South, parliament, with Mrs Thatcher losing her Tories there - for example, by Alliance support- where the Tories' majority of seven was the majority. But if you find you're colouring seats ers who judged that their best way of denying narrowest in the country, down to Cardiff like Warwickshire North (40) and Keighley (48) Labour victory was to vote tactically for the Central, where the majority of 3,452 put them in blue to show that the Conservatives are party of their second choice, which in this case just under nine per cent of the total vote ahead holding them, then the present prime minister would be the Conservatives. of their nearest rivals, the Alliance. will almost certainly be staying in Number Ten. Some of the Alliance MPs in the last Parlia- If the Alliance and Labour between them can A measure of Labour's task in this election is ment are hard-pressed in this triangular election too: Ian Wrigglesworth in Stockton South is Renfrew West and Inverclyde (19). A remarkable Labour marginals: the being challenged by Tories, but in Glasgow example of the three-party fight in just one seat: Copeland (25). Dr John Cunningham's seat. He's Hillhead former SDP leader Roy Jenkins is Anna McCurley defends a newly-won Tory seat, Labour's shadow environment minister, and he under threat from Labour. in 1983, from the SDP, who were just 1,322 votes has to defend the seat that houses the nuclear behind her, with third-placed Labour only 208 reprocessing plant in Cumbria. His majority last votes behind that. time was 1,837. Hornsey and Wood Green (61) and Hampstead Conservative marginals: and Highgate (63). Two former Tory Ministers, Alliance marginals: Richmond and Barnes (3). The Alliance's best Hugh Rossi and Geoffrey Finsberg, defend seats Stockton South (1). Ian Wrigglesworth, the chance to hurt the Tories in London. Alan they won from Labour a generation back. Alliance's trade and industry spokesman, has former is Watson, broadcaster, having his Cardiff Central (68). The impost seat: if only 102 votes in hand in a seat that he held for fourth go at breaking the government's grip Conservative Ian Grist loses hejp and certainly Labour from 1974 to 1981, when he deserted to here. He lost by only 74 votes last time. if he loses badly, Mrs Thatcher's majority will the SDP and gave the Tories a chance they only Banff and Buchan (14). Albert McQuarrie and disappear. But the Alliance, who are the chal- just missed last time. two of his Conservative colleagues in Moray (31) lengers, are strong in Cardiff and may do Leeds West (5). Michael Meadowcroft, the and Angus East (65) are under threat from the unusually well if some Labour supporters surprise Alliance winner in 1983, faces a strong SNP, who hope to return after a slump in 1979.