ITV announce General Election 2015 coverage details
ITV has announced their coverage plans for the 2015 General Election.
ITV News Political Editor, Tom Bradby, will take the chair on election night (7th May) leading ITV’s coverage of the closest and most unpredictable battle for Number 10 in a generation. He’ll be on air with the fastest results and the best analysis from an expert panel.
Tom will be joined in the studio by two of the country’s leading psephologists: Professor Colin Rallings, ITV News’ election analyst for more than 20 years; and Professor Jane Green, from Manchester University, one of the Directors of the British Election Study, an organisation which has been monitoring British election behaviour for more than 50 years.
Julie Etchingham will also play a leading role in ITV’s coverage on the night: interrogating the key data in the studio with clear graphics.
On election night, ITV regional news will have more than 120 reporters at counts across the UK who’ll be supporting the network programme throughout the night, contributing to rolling news coverage online.
Alex Chandler, Programme Editor of ITV’s Election Programme – “First with the results, fast with analysis and focused on telling the story of the election as it happens, ITV’s overnight programme will guide viewers through the most complex and unpredictable race in a generation with comprehensive coverage of the battle for Number 10 and what lies ahead once the results are in.”
Good Morning Britain
On the morning after polling day, Good Morning Britain will bring the first news of the night’s dramatic events to the nation as it wakes up. Anchored from the Good Morning Britain studio, the programme will be fastest to air with the key live results from around the country, supported by a team of ITV News correspondents, reporting history as it happens.
There will be informed analysis from Britain’s top experts; commentary from political sparring partners, Edwina Currie and Oona King; three former spin doctors, who really know what goes on behind the closed doors of Westminster, will unravel the substance from the spin; Good Morning Britain’s panel of ‘floating voter mums’ will finally reveal which way they voted; and there’ll be further insight from respected political pundits, Andrew Pierce and Kevin Maguire.
Vital to the outcome of the election will be Scotland – Lorraine Kelly will be live from Govan in Glasgow, just a stone’s throw from where she was born. She’ll be joined by the key Scottish political figures, who could play a major role in the next government.
ITV News
ITV News will be back on air after Good Morning Britain throughout the morning of May 8th, with a special extended programme presented by Alastair Stewart.
Stewart will report on the key developments and reaction to the results of the General Election 2015. He will be joined by leading politicians and key reporters from across the country – alongside experts such as Colin Rallings from Plymouth University and Constitutional Historian Vernon Bogdanor. ITV’s top journalists will analyse how the nation has voted and who will be the next occupant of Number Ten.
Later that day, Alastair Stewart and Mary Nightingale will be bringing the early evening news live from Downing Street and Westminster, and Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham will anchor an extended ITV News At Ten with analysis from Political Editor Tom Bradby and key correspondents on what is sure to be a dramatic day in Westminster.
Leaders’ Debate
On 2nd April at 8pm, Julie Etchingham will host and moderate the first debate of the 2015 General Election campaign. It will feature seven party leaders – David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon, Natalie Bennett and Leanne Wood – in The ITV Leaders’ Debate.
During the two-hour live debate, leaders will have the opportunity to address questions posed by the studio audience. The format will allow each leader to give uninterrupted answers to questions which they will not see in advance, and then open up to a moderated discussion between the leaders, for up to 18 minutes on each question.
The Agenda
A special live election series of The Agenda will launch on April 2nd following The ITV Leaders’ Debate.
The political panel show, presented by Tom Bradby, will next air on April 9th, and then will begin to air twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays after ITV News at Ten, from April 13th, with guests including the Prime Minister David Cameron, and the Labour Leader Ed Miliband.
Tonight
ITV will also be screening a series of Tonight specials that will put the spotlight on the political figures who are the key players in the General Election 2015.
The five films, produced by ITV News and hosted by Tom Bradby and News at Ten’s Julie Etchingham, will paint intimate portraits of the party leaders in the run up to the election.
In the Tonight Special focusing on the Leader of the Conservative Party, Tom Bradby spends time at Number 10 with David and Samantha Cameron, and follows the Prime Minister on the road asking him, in a series of personal interviews, how five years of power have changed him.
In a second special featuring the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, Bradby spends time in Downing Street and at home with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his family, and examines his journey to the heart of government.
A Tonight Special on the Leader of the Labour Party will see Tom Bradby brunching at home with the Milibands, and spending time with Ed Miliband at work, examining the man who could be our next Prime Minister.
Nigel Farage will be the subject of a fourth Tonight special. Julie Etchingham provides an in depth profile of the UKIP Party leader from the seaside town he visited as a young man and the countryside he grew up in.
Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood and Natalie Bennett talk to Julie Etchingham in the fifth programme about their role in post-election Britain and what drives each of these leaders.
