Madam, – I was delighted to hear from Gerry Murray, 46 years after our first TV election (Letters, March 1st)! But, while he thinks my memory is “odd to say the very least”, I am afraid that his, is a little incorrect. For the 1965 election I was hired as commentator for a fee of £25 and was on air in that role throughout the election, except when I went home so as to facilitate the publication of all the counts. In the event, I also provided simulated results to make possible a test run, ensuring that all counts could be presented through this new medium. My fee was accordingly increased to £100.
Mr Murray says, quite rightly, that nobody ever “blew the whistle” to stop a programme. But what I said in my article was that “on the morning of the election count our panel met to test the system, using my simulated results”. It was at the end of that exercise – four hours before the programme actually started – that I said the whistle blew.
He is right that this election programme proved to be a “seamless production”, lasting approximately 11 hours, during most of which I was on air as a commentator. As I recorded later in the article, that later assisted my election to the Senate. – Yours, etc,