Dispatch Box

I remember a few years ago a program from BBC News on BBC Two called Dispatch Box. I only saw it once and never saw it again. I'm asking this question. What was it about?

Despatch Box was the predecessor to The Daily Politics.

Why so much interest in a programme you remember nothing about

Isn't it kinda obvious a programme called Dispatch Box would be about politics?

Just interested. Did David Lowe do the music for the show?

I think it was Ronnie Hazelhurst wasn't it?

IIRC it aired at 12midnight on BBC2 Mondays to Thursdays when Parliament was in session, and Andrew Neil was the regular presenter.

Caps from the TV Room.

http://thetvroom.com/p-bbc-two-news-e.shtml

Video at Informativos TV. Scroll down the page.

I believe Despatch Box was actually replaced by "This Week" - the idea of having long form discussions etc was carried along. As much as I love Portillo and Dianne, they just can't match Wednesday's classic "press gang" and of course the time when Stephen Norris just said he wanted to watch Emmerdale. Surreal.

Westminster Live became The Daily Politics didn't it - in an attempt to make politics more "accessible" to the great unwashed. Done by giving it a title even an idiot would fail to miss and slapped some dance music over the titles (though of course dropped for a more serene number now)

Despatch Box was Monday to Thursday - from midnight to the start of The Learning Zone at 12:30.

It was the replacement for 'The Midnight Hour'

I seem to remember that both The Midnight Hour and Despatch Box were a bit of a nightmare for the presentation directors as neither programmes had PAs. The timings could be a bit haywire sometimes but because the Learning "Zones" were supposed to begin at precise clock-hours (they were 0030, 0200, 0400 and 0600 I think - something like that anyway) getting them off on time so that the whole nightshift ran to time could sometimes be a bit of an uphill struggle. Even if a pres director gave them a fixed off-air time, they'd often over- or under-run simply because there was no-one looking after the overall timings!