Today, we start the first of six Old Newscasts looking at the story of 30 years of British Politics through six votes. We start in 1997, when the Prime Minister John Major called an election, hoping to extend 18 years of Conservative rule, and beat Labour’s Tony Blair . To help us, we have two BBC legends who were there at the time. Jeremy Vine was the BBC's political reporter and Kirsty Wark was presenting Newsnight. In this, the first of two 1997 election episodes, we look at the lay of the land in the run up to the vote. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480. New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Anna Harris. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
