There’s much joy to be had from watching reruns of old general elections

It is 46 years since Harold Wilson won a tiny majority at the second attempt that year, and it’s rather enjoyable to rewatch the footage, writes John Rentoul

Margaret Beckett is the only MP elected in October 1974 who is still in the House of Commons (Getty)

I have been watching old election results again. On the 46th anniversary of the general election of October 1974, the BBC reran the entire results night programme. I have only just caught up with it on iPlayer, and do recommend it – hurry, you have eight days left. 

The clothes and accents are immense. Esther Rantzen reported from the Guildford count. Frank Allaun, the Labour left-winger, said he looked forward to a referendum on the Common Market. “I believe that last item was Labour’s trump card in this election,” he told Robin Day. 

Then there is the result from Lincoln, where Margaret Jackson, now Margaret Beckett, and then looking very like Princess Anne, won the seat back for Labour. She defeated Dick Taverne, a prototype Social Democrat who had held the seat as Democratic Labour in the previous election, nine months earlier, in February 1974.