BBC Election 1959

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 108

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    For 1959 this BBC Election coverage was excellent. Quite a feat for all those outside broadcasts. Remember this was the era before satellite and broadband, so all outside broadcasts were done by microwave linked OB units, which was a huge task for the BBC, and they did it very well.

  • @pendorran
    @pendorran 5 ปีที่แล้ว +45

    Bachelor Jeremy Thorpe's "very gay campaign" is an interesting choice of words. Unintentional, I'd imagine, given the differences in 1950s English slang.

    • @ThomasTHEONEANDONLY
      @ThomasTHEONEANDONLY 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      He was later involved in the Thorpe Affair where it was alleged that he tried to have his former male lover killed. While it was legal in England and Wales, and later legalized in Scotland (1980) and Northern Ireland (1982), it was still frowned upon.

    • @duncanpriestley964
      @duncanpriestley964 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​​@@ThomasTHEONEANDONLY having your gay lover killed has never been legal in the UK.

    • @matthewrippingsby5384
      @matthewrippingsby5384 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The 1955 election coverage mentions his 'gay jumper' so it may not have been entirely accidental...

    • @margaretbanks8969
      @margaretbanks8969 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Also being gay was illeagal.

    • @yeahcat7509
      @yeahcat7509 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      The way she said “you’re a bachelor and a performer and I’m told you conducted a very gay campaign” seems like an intentional allusion to me

  • @123brownjames
    @123brownjames 5 ปีที่แล้ว +31

    Amazing how 1959 is similar to 2019......3 years after a divisive event (Suez then, Brexit now), a PM who benefited from that (Macmillan then, Boris Johnson now, what’s more both men came from Bailliol College, Oxford) a Labour leader who seemed tired (Gaitskell then, Corbyn now) and a Liberal leader called Jo (Grimond then, Swinson now.)
    The Queen is still on the throne and back then she was pregnant with Prince Andrew..........
    I’d be staggered if the majority was nearly 100 like last time 😂😂😂

    • @milogwynne4667
      @milogwynne4667 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Staggered yet?

    • @chrish2359
      @chrish2359 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Exact same number of Tory seats

    • @yuki-sakurakawa
      @yuki-sakurakawa ปีที่แล้ว

      Oi! Spoiler alert.

    • @venmis137
      @venmis137 ปีที่แล้ว

      And Labour wins the next election, 5 years later! What a weird coincidence.
      Although the majority will probably be more substantive, but who knows, maybe it'll be the exact same lmao.

    • @excess824
      @excess824 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      And both had the conservative downfall due to scandals around the prime minister

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    This was the last BBC general election night coverage to be aired from BBC Lime Grove studios. BBC Television Centre opened in 1960 and by the 1964 general election it was well up and running, with the centre used for the 1964 election

  • @jamesbomd3503
    @jamesbomd3503 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    LOVE HOW IT ALL KICKS OFF IN THE WELSH PUB....AT 39:18

  • @carlh200
    @carlh200 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    was just looking for one last thing to watch before bed and you uploaded this. perfect timing!

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    I am amazed at the great presentation the BBC did here in 1959. To link up as many outside broadcasting units in 1959 was a great feat. All those OB units, linked together usually my microwave signals to the nearest BBC broadcasting centre and then fed to Lime Grove Studios in London via cable or microwave signals, truly amazing work. Anyone else agree?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      We certainly have a tendency now, with satellite OB trucks able to go anywhere and set up very quickly, to think it an easy thing. In 1959 it most certainly wasn't, and remember there were no small handheld television cameras until several years later. But election nights were regarded by the BBC and ITN as an occasion to showcase the capabilities of broadcasting and push technical boundaries (eg the BBC's flop 'interview from a train' in '66)

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@DBIVUK Am I right in thinking it was all connected by microwave links? As satellite was not the norm until the 1980s right? I am fascinated by the microwave links the Post Office had in place for the BBC and ITV to use. I had no idea how much of a chained network it was, had you?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@johnking5174 I think use of satellite links for domestic outside broadcasts wasn't even possible until the 1980s, and was very expensive (requiring prebooking) until well into the 1990s. I do remember the strangeness on the morning after the Great Storm of 1987 when power cuts rendered several studios unavailable and the breakfast programmes were very strange affairs.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@DBIVUK I bet the gales probably affected the microwave transmitters across the south that terrible day. I was watching the 1970 general election on BBC Parliament back in June, and what amazed me was the appalling transition between OB links from the studio to location. Have you seen it? I was wondering if those transitions were aired on the night, because it was a really poor service the public funded mighty BBC in their vast TC1 studio provided. I wonder if ITN were better with their links in 1970? Do you know what I mean? Thanks.

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@johnking5174 The frequent picture roll seen on the recording of the BBC's 1970 general election was actually an artefact of the recording process. With so many links the BBC was clearly unable to synchronise the video inputs, resulting in many 'non-sync cuts'. Viewers would barely have noticed, but the quad video machines of the day did not cope so well.

  • @TheLeonhamm
    @TheLeonhamm ปีที่แล้ว +4

    And amid all the Rock 'n' Roll revelry on the Hit Parade in October 1959 were ..
    Here Comes Summer - Jerry Keller, Only Sixteen - Craig Douglas, Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin, Living Doll - Cliff Richard/ The Drifters, 'Till I Kissed You - The Everly Brothers, Someone - Johnny Mathis, Lonely Boy - Paul Anka, Three Bells - The Browns, China Tea - Rus Conway, and High Hopes - Frank Sinatra (Cliff and the Shads had two new entries, both sides of one disc (A) Travelin' Light and (B) Dynamite).
    Five years later at the next election, Oct 1964, the teenage world had ..
    Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison, Something Good - Herman's Hermits, Where Did Our Love Go - The Supremes, Rag Doll - The Four Seasons, The Wedding - Julie Rodgers, I Wouldn't Trade You For The World - The Bachelors, I Won't Forget You - Jim Reeves, Together - PJ Proby, When You Walk In The Room - The Searchers, I'm Cryin' - The Animals (Cliff was in there - Twelfth Of Never, The Shads - Rhythm And Greens, and Jim Reeves had another major hit on the Top Twenty - I Love You Because).
    A different world.
    ;o)

  • @Monroe-is1sz
    @Monroe-is1sz 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Oh David, you spoil us

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    BBC Television election night coverage commenced at 9.15pm on Thursday 8th October 1959 & continued until 4.00am. It resumed at 6.30am on Friday 9th October 1959 & continued right through until 5.00pm. A mammoth broadcasting feat for the BBC Television team in 1959.

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    BBC Light Programme Radio - starting their lighter coverage of election results and news intermixed with light music from bands, orchestras and some records running from 11.30pm and ended around 4.30am, before resuming at 6.30am.

  • @jamesbomd3503
    @jamesbomd3503 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    WATCHING THIS NOW AT 4AM IN THE MORNING ELECTION NIGHT DECEMBER13/2019
    TO NUMB MY PAIN, AS I CAN NOT BARE WATCHING THE CURRENT RESULTS COME IN .
    LABOUR VOTERS WILL UNDERSTAND !

    • @matthewkirkham6734
      @matthewkirkham6734 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      James Bomd 😂😂😂😂 loser

    • @thie4987
      @thie4987 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      😂🤣

    • @andrewrobinson8305
      @andrewrobinson8305 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      So to numb the pain of a Tory landslide, you chose to watch the Tory landslide of 1959.
      Strange choice!!

    • @MrDustpile
      @MrDustpile 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      And now Labour are bleating and triggering in impotent rage as they are too weedy to block all these Tory bills right now. Ah, glory days as woke culture and illegal migration are curbed for example and having enough vaccines is called nationalism.
      Labour of '59 would have been dumbstruck at today's loonies.

    • @MrDustpile
      @MrDustpile 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      And PS.... Labour voters went TORY!! They understood alright !!!!

  • @frankdsouza2425
    @frankdsouza2425 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Have not the faintest idea of who you are, Mr Boothroyd, but what a debt of gratitude the likes of my chum who took on Harold Wilson in Huyton, and I, owe you.

  • @stephenpaulanthonyreynolds274
    @stephenpaulanthonyreynolds274 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Well they did not need Zoom in 1959. Just TV monitors to speak to each other. LOL

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes, but what did connect those monitors? Not broadband, but microwave outside broadcast links or links into the coaxial cable system from the Post Office.

    • @JJVernig
      @JJVernig ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@johnking5174 Not a millisecond delay. The over the line interviews are especially nice.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@JJVernig I love their microwave links - now with satellite and broadband the delay is awful. I watched the BBC News this evening, and Reeta Chakrabarti was in Jerusalem and Jeremy Bowen in Tel Aviv, literally in the same country, but the delay was almost 10 seconds long. Awful, and this is the so called modern world.

  • @rotonda4068
    @rotonda4068 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This opening sequence is brilliant. Very dramatic and effective.

  • @markwrightrf
    @markwrightrf ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Dimbelby, Butler and McKenzie... I wish they were running the country. They seem to know more about it than so-called politicians do 🙂

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Lime Grove Studios was the home for this general election, and I think this might have been the last general election night to be held at Lime Grove Studios, I think 1964 was when they used BBC Television Centre, correct me if I am wrong.

    • @bigaspidistra
      @bigaspidistra 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Studio G to be precise. Although 4 of the cameras were routed via the Studio H gallery which could have provided basic coverage should the G gallery have broken down (it didn't).

  • @georgecherucheril9947
    @georgecherucheril9947 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I LOVE this!!! What a great time and good journalism. They even go to a bar and interview men there about the election. This was a time when people had common sense and there was order in the world! Richard Dimbleby was a great anchorman. I am sorry he died so young in 1965. I love the newsroom setting. The reporters are excellent. Take Derek Hart's report:
    “...tonight, will be triumphantly realized or ignominiously destroyed like so many bookie’s tickets.”
    “But no breeze can equal the cold wind of disillusionment and defeat that will be blowing tomorrow either here or at Transport House or some 50 or 60 yards across the square at the Tory party headquarters...”
    I love it!!!

    • @johncronin9540
      @johncronin9540 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I agree. It was similar here in the U.S. I think the reason for the superior word crafting was probably due to the fact that these early broadcast journalists were primarily trained as newspaper journalists, and thus had to really learn how to write. Today, those going into television are trained directly for television, and appearance and “style” became more important than substance.
      This era of journalists also did radio before television was around, and without a camera, a reporter on radio had to paint a picture with words, so the listener at home was able to imagine the scenes the reporters were describing.

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    BBC Home Service Radio started their election night results coverage on Thursday 8th October 1959 at 9.45pm & continued through until 4.30am. The resumed election coverage at 7.00am on Friday 9th October 1959.

    • @JJVernig
      @JJVernig ปีที่แล้ว

      Is that somewhere online?

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@JJVernig No, radio coverage was never recorded back then, considered disposal

  • @andydixon2980
    @andydixon2980 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Never knew this existed. Excellent coverage considering the relative youth of the BBC as a live broadcaster. Sadly as technology has advanced, standards seemed to have dropped.

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    This election coverage of the BBC trounced ITV in the ratings. The 1959 general election was the first election night to be covered by ITN for ITV with the help of every ITV company, sadly their coverage was dreadful and the BBC won hands down.

    • @123brownjames
      @123brownjames 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      John King not much changes there then......

  • @markbrown4039
    @markbrown4039 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I cracked up at the crowd singing "Why Are We Waiting?" at the Southampton result.

  • @KenhCuaDaoLeMinh
    @KenhCuaDaoLeMinh 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Nice thumbnail.

  • @fisherpeter695
    @fisherpeter695 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Political commenters and students of politics seem reluctant to examine the record of the Harold Macmillan government 1959-64.
    Huge new housing estates were built north and south to replace pre -war housing often bereft of amenities we took for granted in the 60s. This brought big increases in better health and improvements in child heath from the post war period.
    Comprehensive schools were built. and Hire Purchase introduced. Something that todays population would think always existed. Public transport worked well across rail and bus services. Macmillan represented Stockton on Tees in the North East.
    Perhaps we could do with the wisdom and understated personality in todays governance.

  • @margaretbanks8969
    @margaretbanks8969 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Was just over a year old
    We were living in london didnt have tv but mum and dad would have listened on radio.

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    8:32 - Derek Hart is the epitome of the RP English accent - just listen to how he pronounces the word "house", pure RP diction. That clipped English accent is now a thing of the past.

  • @yeahcat7509
    @yeahcat7509 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Having just watched the 1955 coverage, this coverage 4 years later is extremely interesting. The technology has come on in bounds and you can see the social attitudes are starting to shift away from the paternalism evident in the ‘55 presentation. Women are more present, though not enough - like the woman calls out in the Welsh pub: “let the woman speak!”

  • @andrewrobinson8305
    @andrewrobinson8305 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    The beginnings of the North/South, and Urban/Rural divide.

    • @BritishRaceCaller
      @BritishRaceCaller ปีที่แล้ว

      Two years too late but go and read a book on the Romans in Great Britain and there was a North-South divide even then!

  • @That_Random_Bloke
    @That_Random_Bloke 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    2:41:46 Churchill!

  • @yuki-sakurakawa
    @yuki-sakurakawa ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The music made me think of batman 🤣

  •  4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love the plummy accents...

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      This was BBC English spoken

    •  4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@johnking5174 I know I am 67 years old!

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @ I love the RP accent. In fact my accent has gradually vanished over the last two decades. I was born in Northern Ireland, but raised in England, and my accent has slipped away to something more standard English.

    •  4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@johnking5174 Well, we are not, alas, talking like the Duchess of Devonshire or Lord Mountbatten! But I love the Irish accent too!

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @ I was born in 1985 in Derry, moved away from there in 1997 and now in 2020, after 23 years of being surrounded by English people and English accents (I grew up in Berkshire) my Northern Irish accent from when I was 12 in 1997 has now nearly vanished.

  • @pendorran
    @pendorran 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Is this the first appearance of the famous Swing-O-Meter?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      It was first seen in the South region in the 1955 election, but this was the first time on the national coverage.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@DBIVUK Hi David, can you help me with this - before satellite trucks were available, how did BBC OB units mange to get their signals back to Lime Grove Studios? What was used back then? I have always been confused by this, and wondered how OB units worked in this era, as I understand satellite trucks, as my dad was a security guard once for the ITV OB units when I was young. Thanks.

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@johnking5174 The very first OB units (such as those used for the Coronation in 1937) used ultra-short-wave transmitters which were enough to get a signal back to Alexandra Palace. Later units used to transmit in the microwave part of the EM spectrum - didn't require very high power but did need line of sight because microwaves are very directional. They are still in use, I think.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@DBIVUK Fascinating. I heard the term microwave links before, and never understood it. I remember the large satellite on the side of the ITV truck when I was a kid, it was huge, and I remember the man explaining to me how the signal got sent back to ITN in London. I assume microwaves were similar, but not sent via satellite, but just through the air?

  • @margaretbanks8969
    @margaretbanks8969 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Hammersmith was where we were living.

  • @pinedelgado4743
    @pinedelgado4743 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    What??? No women correspondents?? Where was Jasmine Bligh while all this was going on?? She'd have contributed greatly to the BBC's reportage of this event having been with the "Beeb's" television service since BEFORE WW2.

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      There was a second part of the programme broadcast during the day on Friday 9 October (this is only overnight) but I'd be surprised if there were any women reporters in that either - the BBC of 1959 didn't give them this sort of job, Jasmine Bligh was doing children's TV and fashion programmes, not political reporting. That's what people mean when they talk about "going back to the 1950s".

    • @pinedelgado4743
      @pinedelgado4743 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thank you much,@@DBIVUK. :) :) :)

  • @lindymcbroom953
    @lindymcbroom953 ปีที่แล้ว

    David Boothroyd was this Election the first to be televised?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  ปีที่แล้ว +3

      The first in the UK was 1950, but no recording survives from that and 1951. Some of the 1955 election night programme was recorded.

  • @stephenpaulanthonyreynolds274
    @stephenpaulanthonyreynolds274 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Were there no Women political commentators in 1959.

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      There were very few. And in 1959 no-one would have thought it noteworthy that everyone in this programme is male. It was not until the following year that the BBC TV had a woman newsreader - as an experiment, with no permanent appointment for another 15 years. This election did set a record for the number of women MPs - there were 25.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@DBIVUK I believe it was Sue Lawley in the first election of 1974 who was the first female host/presenter on an election night on BBC One. Angela Rippon was there in 1979.

  • @excess824
    @excess824 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Is margaret thatcher mentioned in this?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Don't think so. Her seat was generally regarded as safe. It seems to have counted overnight but I don't think it gets shown on screen.

    • @excess824
      @excess824 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​​​@@DBIVUK​ also do you have coverage of the 1987 general election I have seen every election coverage from 1959 to 2019 apart from that one on the channel?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@excess824 I've kept a copy of the BBC 1987 general election coverage when it was repeated on BBC Parliament.

  • @MrSstiel
    @MrSstiel 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    What's the music being played at the beginning?

    • @DBIVUK
      @DBIVUK  3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      It's 'The Battle of Agincourt' from William Walton's music for Lawrence Olivier's Henry V film in 1944: th-cam.com/video/ulzyKajYhPs/w-d-xo.html

    • @MrSstiel
      @MrSstiel 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@DBIVUK Thank you very much for that and for these clips. Great footage. Love it when you see footage from the 1950s. 60s and '70s as if you're there. Not flickering or with black dots

  • @rightwing
    @rightwing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    1955: Macmillan's name mentioned once
    1959: *boom* Macmillan is Prime Minister
    British politics 101
    🤡

    • @rightwing
      @rightwing 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      2019: Sunak's name not mentioned at all
      2022: becomes PM
      1983: Major enters parliament
      1990: becomes PM
      this is nuts, Tory party

    • @MrAJR76
      @MrAJR76 ปีที่แล้ว

      Major entered parliament in 1979, not 1983.

  • @willhovell9019
    @willhovell9019 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    How did Gaitskell manage to lose this election ? Utter incompetance and moving away from Labour roots

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      By 1959 the country had gotten better, more prosperous, the public felt that the tories helped that happen and so re-relected the tories.

  • @johnking5174
    @johnking5174 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    2:54:25 - I really detested that horrid little man Lord Hailsham. Vile little man, who one one side could charm and amuse you, but then the mask slipped, and the ultra right winger that he was came to the front. He was a bitter opponent to the legalising homosexuality in the UK.

    • @frankdsouza2425
      @frankdsouza2425 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      John King, Hailsham courageously stood up to the Powellite wave, and was instrumental to its marginalisation, and to Powell moving to the Six Counties, where his more Protestant than Paisley stance bewildered many on both sides of The Divide.

    • @paulrimmer391
      @paulrimmer391 ปีที่แล้ว

      Wise man Hailsham. Well done for standing up to the sexual perverts.

    • @yeahcat7509
      @yeahcat7509 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I never saw him before tonight but his demeanor gives me chills