Political anorak alert - historic general election BBC coverage re-runs

Last weekend, the BBC Parliament channel re-ran the BBC's coverage of the 1983 general election. In a weird sort of way, I was glued to it. David Dimbleby looked 14 years old, there was Jeremy Paxman conducting what must have been one of his first TV interviews. There were many politicians who are now dead (e.g Peter Shore) but some still living (Cyril Smith and David Steel). There was the extraordinary sight of Neil Kinnock smoking a pipe.

There was a remarkably young-looking Peter Snow with no graphics to be seen! The only graphics shown was a simple table showing the state of the parties. It was wonderful. It made be wonder whether the BBC should ditch election graphics altogether.

This was the first general election re-run I have seen on BBC Parliament, but apparently they have been showing them for a while.

Anyway, there is a Facebook group to ask for more of these re-runs - but only at weekends. There's a form here to add your weight to the campaign.