A brief history of election night graphics

There is a General Election taking place in the UK tonight, the time where broadcasters traditionally open up their toy box to play with their very latest graphics packages.

An election in any country is a time for broadcasters to roll out all their latest whizzbang effects and push their graphics teams to the limit. And as even a brief walk around NAB this year showed, with significant elections occurring across a good proportion of the planet this year there has never been a better time to showcase the capabilities of the latest systems.

You want Unreal Engine 5 sandpits to play in? You've got them.

We'll delve into the detail of what occurs on UK screens tonight next week, as well as look ahead to the US elections in November which will take the tech and push it to places we've probably not yet seen.

But for now, let's remember things as they were and how we got here. The BBC has posted a snappy little video titled A history of BBC election night in two minutes on its website. Sorry, there's no embed code so you're just going to have to go there and watch it, but here are some screen grabs of historic moments that will release a warm glow of nostalgia/shudder of abject horror depending on your point of view.

And lastly, perhaps one of the most cutting edge images of all, though it really doesn't look it. Below are representations of BBC presenters Laura Kuenssberg, Jeremy Vine, and Clive Myrie, alongside Larry the Downing Street cat, all stood outside Number 10 Downing Street in the BBC’s Wonder Chase experience in Roblox. As far as we know mercifully this isn't a live experience, but it might well be by the time we get to the next election in 2029 or earlier. Anyone else think that Jeremy Vine looks a lot like Kier Starmer?