Old election night TV programmes are history in the raw

Viewing a re-run of election night coverage is like watching a classic football game. Even if you know the result, the match itself can be surprisingly tense, says John Rentoul

Clegg, Cameron and Brown fighting it out in 2010 (Reuters)

Harriet Harman and Peter Mandelson seem almost timeless, but Michael Gove seemed very much younger when he appeared near the start of the BBC’s coverage of the 2010 general election.

The BBC Parliament channel has just started re-running a series of election night programmes, possibly because there is less parliamentary business to broadcast, or possibly because it regards the provision of lockdown binge-watching for political geeks as part of its public service remit.

Whatever the reason, I watched as David Dimbleby (also timeless) unveiled the exit poll and a succession of talking heads refused to believe that the Liberal Democrats, still abuzz with Cleggmania, had actually lost seats.