Sue Inglish, Head of Political Programming, highlights some of the key moments in the BBC's election broadcasting over the past 70 years.
The History of the BBC team have launched a new collection of oral histories charting the evolution of election broadcasting over the past 70 years. In the video posted above Head of BBC Political Programming Sue Inglish discusses some of the key election moments from the collection.
This collection is the first in a series of annually released collections oral histories made available in the run up to the BBC's centenary in 1922. The contributions from staff involved in election coverage over the years, starts with the story of how BBC created election broadcasting in 1950 under Grace Wyndham Goldie, when she ‘cooked up over lunch a plan drawing pictures on the tablecloth…’. The collection goes on to trace the broadcast's evolution, overcoming such obstacles as the 14-Day Rule (whereby broadcasters could not cover any issues being debated in Parliament) and the block on TV or radio covering election campaigns.
'100 Voices that Made the BBC' - the BBC's Oral Histories project is made available for the first time on the History of the BBC website. It features 100 voices across broad range of historical themes, and covers the history of BBC from its creation in the 1920s to present day, offering new and fresh insights to BBC behind the scenes. The archive project was begun in 1972 by one of the BBC’s directors.
Jon Jacob is Editor of the About the BBC Blog
- Discover more BBC election broadcasting history on the History of the BBC website.
