[Matrix]

Here is Swing Time: Election night TV from BBC2 1997 which includes the Election rehearsals, it also includes are rather interesting bit from the 1992 election where Exit poll was in utter freefall until the VERY last second: 53Min 25second, whole programme is a joy,


www.youtube.com 

How lovely.

I mean, in one sense, the forthcoming election will be of no surprise. Equally, it should not be a surprise to anyone that election rehearsals have been taking place for some time now. We will typically rehearse a range of different 'news events', of which elections feature. It will also probably be of no surprise, and not one to rehash too much, but internally the BBC have needed to screen test a number of colleagues with the departure of Huw. So: seeing Laura, or Fiona, or Sophie, all walking around with different scenarios in different settings has become a bit of a feature of the last few months.

Practically speaking though, rehearsals are a good opportunity not just to think through the technical bits but to think through question strategies, how to manage different results (say if there is a crop of sudden big losses all at once), or even down to what to do if there is a series of technical faults. There is also a lot of coordination work in this stage with Nations and Regions in terms of thinking through and planning local election coverage (or, at the minute, how to rationalise that).