BBC Scotland has announced an ambitious line-up of programming on television, radio and online for the General Election 2017 campaign.
This will include a TV leaders’ debate, and through-the-night coverage on June 8th/9th, which will bring the results live from across the country.
Sarah Smith will chair the Leaders’ Debate in front of an audience with a panel of five Scottish party leaders – Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson, Kezia Dugdale, Willie Rennie and Patrick Harvie.
The 90-minute debate will take place in Edinburgh at 7.30pm on Sunday 21st May, and will be broadcast on BBC One Scotland and the BBC News Channel.
Glenn Campbell will present a series of special ‘Ask the Leader’ programmes in Glasgow where individual party leaders take questions from the audience. These will be broadcast at 7pm on BBC One Scotland in the week before the election.
Reporting Scotland’s late evening bulletin at 2230 will be extended to 30 minutes from Monday 8th May to bring detailed coverage of the latest developments in the General Election story.
It’ll be presented by Stephen Jardine and Laura Maciver.
On the day after the election, Reporting Scotland at 1830 will be extended to an hour and will be presented by Jackie Bird at Westminster and Sally Magnusson in Glasgow.
Gordon Brewer will be interviewing the Scottish party leaders on Sunday Politics Scotland on BBC1 throughout May.
The leaders will also be quizzed in major interviews on Good Morning Scotland – presented by Gary Robertson, Hayley Millar and Gillian Marles.
Throughout the campaign, the GMS team will be out on the road testing the temperature with voters across the country.
There will be special radio programmes covering the election in Orkney, Shetland, the Highlands, the North East, the Borders and South West.
BBC Scotland’s General Election 2017 website will be a prime destination for analysis, features and news from the heart of the campaign. There will also be a debate with politicians broadcast live on social media, filmed before an audience in the BBC’s Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow, and presented by Nick Eardley.
On polling day, Glenn Campbell, Brian Taylor, Jackie Bird, David Henderson and Fiona Stalker will host the results programme on BBC One Scotland from 9.55pm, with Bill Whiteford and Gillian Marles doing likewise on Radio Scotland.
For Gaelic listeners, there will be regular extended political coverage on Radio nan Gaidheal focusing in particular on matters of importance to Gaels throughout Scotland.
And on 31 May at 8.30pm, Darren Laing will present a televised studio discussion programme on BBC ALBA, where a panel of experts will give their views on the campaign.
The Gaelic audience will enjoy a full overnight radio results service, presented by Donald Morrison and Seumas Macdonald, while a full online service at www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan will bring up-to-the-minute results through the night and into the following day.
A two-hour TV Election special, An Taghadh 2017, presented by Iain MacInnes and Angela Maclean, will analyse the result and bring reaction and analysis from across the country at 7pm on 9th June.
Gary Smith, head of News and Current Affairs, BBC Scotland, said: “Coverage of elections is one of the most important things we do at the BBC. These plans aim to give voters, young and old, all the information and analysis they need, with clarity, accuracy and immediacy.
“We’ll be reporting the campaign around the whole country, hearing from the politicians and the public, and giving voters the chance to put their questions to the party leaders.”
ENDS
MEDIA RELEASE issued by BBC Scotland. You too can share your stories (aka press or media releases), on this site. Email here for more information.
Check out twitter.com/scotsbulletin for your very own media releases feed…
Check out too twitter.com/allMediaNews.
Stay connected with our various twitter feeds: Charities, Drink, Education, Energy, Fashion, Film, Food, Gardens, Legal, Motors, Music, Outdoors, Property, Science and Sports. And not forgetting Finance, Theatre, Travel, Festivals, Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling.
BBC Scotland contact details…
Contact: Jim Gough
Email: jim.gough@bbc.co.uk
