View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Comment
May 7, 2010

Pick your favourite: Press Gazette’s top political TV moments

By Dominic Ponsford1

In journalism terms it was an election campaign that was dominated by the three party leader debates and by one very embarassing TV gaffe from Gordon Brown.

Did they influence the ultimate result? Perhaps just a smidgeon.

On the eve of the campaign the “poll of polls” put the Conservatives on 39, Labour on 31 and the Liberal Democrats on 19.

Nick Clegg is generally believed to have done best out of the debates and in terms of share of the vote (if not number of seats) he appears to have improved his position. At time of writing the Conservatives have 36 per cent of the votes, Labour 29 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 23 per cent.

Any road up, here my top ten political TV moments. Pick your favourite and add your own:

  • 1982 – John Nott walks out of a BBC interview with Robin Day after being accused of being a ‘here today, gone tomorrow politician’.
  • 1983 – Housewife Diana Gould tackles Margaret Thatcher about the sinking of the Belgrano on the BBC’s Nationwide.
  • 1990 – Margaret Thatcher catches BBC political correspondent John Sergeant on the hoof outside the British Embassy in Paris and declares her intention to fight on after the first Tory Party leadership election ballot.
  • 1990 – Then Agriculture Minister John Gummer feeds his four-year-old daughter a beefburger in the midst of the BSE in beef scare.
  • 1992 – Neil Kinnock’s Sheffield rally: ‘Well all right! Well all right!”
  • 1997 – Jeremy Paxman asks then Conservative Michael Howard 12 times: “Did you threaten to overrule him?”
  • 1997 – Election night: Potential Tory leader Michael Portillo loses Enfield Southgate to Stephen Twigg.
  • 2001 – The Prezza punch, then deputy Labour leader John Prescott lamps a voter.
  • 2010 – The first leaders’ debate on ITV – ‘I agree with Nick’ – and to a lesser extent the two subsequent ones on Sky News and the BBC.
  • 2010 – ‘Bigotgate’ – Gordon Brown leaves his mic on and reveals that he thought ‘that woman’ – voter Eugene Duffy – was ‘bigoted’.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network