Baftas 2024: A dog, tears and Murder on the Dancefloor - BBC

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By Emma Saunders

Culture reporter

What a night at the Bafta film awards. And we're not just talking about Oppenheimer picking up the most prizes.

David Tennant brought a dog, Barry Keoghan showed his love for Sophie Ellis-Bextor and our favourite US star Da'Vine Joy Randolph cracked on to Chiwetel Ejiofor. We're here for it.

Here's some of the top moments you might have missed from the ceremony and behind the scenes.

Bring on the Anglophiles

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There wasn't a single British male up for best actor or supporting actor this year and supporting actress nominee Rosamund Pike told us on the red carpet: "I don't have much faith in British people rallying round their own... so I was really delighted to be nominated."

But we don't really mind after the Brits received a lot of love from across the pond courtesy of the likes of Emma Stone and Robert Downey Jr, two of Sunday night's big winners.

Stone started her acceptance speech for best actress in Poor Things by thanking her dialect coach. "He did not laugh at me when I had to say 'water' [in an English accent]. Backstage, she also learned a new bit of British slang when asked a question about "having a chinwag".

Read more on the Baftas

• Michael J Fox brings audience to tears
• In pictures: Stars on the red carpet
• 'Oppenhomies' Murphy and Downey Jr rule Baftas
• Who won what at the Bafta Awards - the full list

War Horse

Meanwhile, US comedian and actor Keegan Michael-Key presented an award entirely in an English accent and best supporting winner Downey Jr said he owed his award in part to Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan's "British sensibility".

Not to mention fellow US star Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who is a fully paid-up Anglophile. She started her career in London's West End in Ghost the Musical and before that, studied at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford.

"I used to come in [to London] and see plays and I saw War Horse at the National Theatre, it changed my life," she said backstage.

"It was so amazing, I called my school [back in the US] and said 'I'm not coming back, I want to stay here.' So you guys taught me the classics and I'm obsessed with Pinter and all that stuff."

More Da'Vine Joy

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She really is the gift who keeps on giving. Earlier in the evening, she took to the stage to collect her award for best supporting actress for her role as grieving mother Mary in The Holdovers.

As she stepped up to receive the prize from 12 Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor, she couldn't resist telling him: "You're so handsome." And he did indeed look dapper in a classic black tux.

She got teary as she spoke about co-star Paul Giamatti and again when she talked about her character. "There have been countless Marys throughout history who have never had the chance to wear a beautiful gown and stand on this stage here in London. Telling her story is a responsibility I do not take lightly." We were welling up, too.

Later, she made journalists cry with laughter when she used a well-known British word beginning with 'b' when asked about the odd decision to release The Holdovers in the UK in January, even though it's set during the Christmas period. We're sure you can guess what word we're referring to.

Shout-out to the Oppenhomies

Best actor winner Cillian Murphy probably made his teenage sons cringe when he thanked his "Oppenhomies" in his acceptance speech but we loved it.

He's the first Irish-born performer to win a best actor Bafta and said, "I'm a really proud Irishman, it means a lot." He added: "People have come up to me on the street and said they've seen the film [Oppenheimer] five, six, seven times... it's very humbling... and it's been a brilliant year for cinema."

At three hours long, six or seven times might be just a bit too much.

Tennant triumph

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Host David Tennant was an all-round success this year, with his natural enthusiasm proving infectious and a genuinely funny script. And how many men could get away with a combo of kilt, sporran and sparkly epaulettes?

He also brought a DOG to the Baftas. Bark Ruffalo, geddit? Loving the canine theme this awards season. We're only just getting over the dog from Anatomy of a Fall rocking up to the Oscars luncheon last week.

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Tennant also had fun with the Barbie crew, introducing "the ugly corner" as the camera panned to gorgeous pair Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the audience. Signing off the show with "Come on Barbie, let's go party" was also a highlight.

Michael J Fox was a moment

We had hoped he would make an appearance but he wasn't on the confirmed guest list ahead of the awards on Sunday. So it was a thrill to see Back to the Future legend Michael J Fox presenting the award for best picture. There was a standing ovation for the star, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's when he was just 29, and rarely makes public appearances.

Since then, the 62-year-old has gone on to raise millions for research into the disease and also raises awareness through The Michael J Fox Foundation. Many on social media said his appearance brought them to tears.

Saltburn's night was bittersweet

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While Emerald Fennell's twisted thriller failed to convert any of its five nominations into awards, it still dominated the headlines as Sophie Ellis Bextor took to the stage to perform Murder on the Dancefloor. Her 2002 track has enjoyed something of a renaissance since being used during the infamous final scene of the film as Barry Keoghan's character Oliver dances naked around his country pile.

Thankfully, Barry didn't feel the need to re-enact his performance, staying safely ensconced in his seat. The camera did cut to him at the end though and he seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Hugh Grant's deadpan delight

Grant may have faced some criticism after playing the role of an Oompa-Loompa in hit film Wonka but the audience were delighted nonetheless when he came up with a rhyme in keeping with his character as he presented the award for best director.

"Oompa-loompa, doompity-dee, now the best director categor-ee, Oompa Loompa doompity-dong, most of these films were frankly too long, Oompa Loompa doompity daa, but for some reason, the nominees are..."

War in the spotlight

It wasn't all frivolous fun, however. The Zone of Interest won three awards, including outstanding British film. It tells the chilling story of the head of Auschwitz, who lives next door to the death camp with his young family.

Producer James Wilson said in his acceptance speech for best film not in the English language: "Walls aren't new from before or since the Holocaust and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen or Mariupol or Israel."

20 Days in Mariupol picked up the prize for best documentary. Its director, Mstyslav Chernov, gave an emotional interview to the BBC's Colin Paterson, saying that he hopes he will still be alive by the time the Baftas come around next year. His film documents a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol as they document the atrocities of the Russian invasion.

Speaking backstage, he said: "We give voice to Ukrainians. We keep reminding the world about what is happening right now. Another city just got occupied by Russia so it's more important than ever to be here and keep talking about this. This award is for the people of Mariupol. They have saved our lives. They have helped us every step of the way."

Samantha Morton dedicates award to children in care

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Morton, who has enjoyed a successful TV career in shows such as The Walking Dead as well as starring in films like Minority Report and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was the recipient of this year's Bafta Fellowship, the organisation's highest honorary accolade.

She grew up in the care system and told the audience how important it was to for people from her background to be represented in films and TV.

"When I first saw Ken Loach's Kes on a huge telly that was wheeled into my classroom, I was forever changed.

"Seeing poverty and people like me on the screen, I recognised myself - representation matters."

She said she would tell her younger self: "You matter, don't give up, the stories we tell, they have the power to change people's lives.

"Film changed my life, it transformed me and it led me here today. I dedicate this award to every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn't survive."

Speaking backstage about the challenges for the British film industry, she said: "We can't just be a service industry for the wonderful Americans... we need our own investments. But if our government only gives us a culture and sports minister rather than separating that and identifying what we do... it's a billion dollar industry. And it's foolish of them not to understand that."

Matthew Perry upset

There was some consternation about the former Friends star not being mentioned in the In Memoriam segment. But Bafta said he would be included in the obituary montage for its television awards in May.

Related Topics

• Bafta Awards
• Film

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Post Office scandal: Kemi Badenoch hits back at Henry Staunton - BBC.com

By Nick Edser

PA Media

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has hit back at claims made by former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton about the reasons for his departure.

Mr Staunton told the Sunday Times that when he was sacked Ms Badenoch had told him: "Someone's got to take the rap."

But Ms Badenoch said the comments were a "disgraceful misrepresentation" of their conversation.

Mr Staunton also said he was told to delay payouts to Post Office scandal victims, which the government denies.

Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted because of glitches in the Horizon IT system between 1999 and 2015 in what has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.

Mr Staunton was appointed Post Office chairman in December 2022, but left the post last month after Ms Badenoch said "new leadership" was needed to tackle the scandal.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Staunton said he first heard about his sacking when he was called by Sky News. He then spoke to Ms Badenoch on the phone.

Mr Staunton also told the paper that shortly after joining the Post Office he was told by a senior civil servant to slow down the rate of compensation payments, apparently to help the government's finances.

"Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spend on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks - I did a file note on it - limp into the election," he told the paper.

"It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials. I didn't ask, because I said: 'I'm having no part of it - I'm not here to limp into the election, it's not the right thing to do by postmasters'."

UK Parliament

Henry Staunton stood down as Port Office chairman last month

In a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Badenoch said Mr Staunton's comments were a "disgraceful misrepresentation of my conversation with him and the reasons for his dismissal".

"Far from 'taking the rap', I dismissed Staunton due to very serious allegations about his conduct while chair of the Post Office, including blocking an investigation into that conduct.

"Henry Staunton had a lack of grip getting justice for postmasters. The serious concerns over his conduct were the reasons I asked him to step down," she added.

She said that her conversation with him was carried out with officials and they took a "complete record". A statement will be made tomorrow "telling the truth", she added.

Earlier a spokesman for the government had said it "utterly" refuted the claims made by Mr Staunton over stalling compensation payments.

"The government has sped up compensation to victims, and consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims," the spokesman said.

"To suggest any actions or conversations happened to the contrary is incorrect. In fact, upon appointment, Mr Staunton was set concrete objectives, in writing, to focus on reaching settlements with claimants - clear evidence of the government's intent."

A spokesperson for Mr Staunton told the BBC his client would be making no further comment but that he stood by the accusations made in the Sunday Times.

They also said there was no investigation into Mr Staunton.

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "The Horizon scandal is widely accepted to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

"Under no circumstances should compensation to victims be delayed and to do so for party political purposes would be a further insult to subpostmasters.

"The Labour Party has called for all subpostmasters to be exonerated and compensation paid swiftly so that victims can begin to draw this awful chapter to a close."

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Mr Staunton's claims were "deeply disturbing" and called for ministers to explain to Parliament "exactly what has happened at the earliest opportunity".

The slow pace of overturning convictions and making compensation payments has led some to call for a mass exoneration of those affected.

Mr Staunton told the Sunday Times that Post Office chief executive Nick Read had written to the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk with legal opinion from the Post Office's solicitors, Peters & Peters, that in more than 300 cases convictions were supported by evidence not related to the Horizon software.

"Basically it was trying to undermine the exoneration argument," Mr Staunton said. "It was 'most people haven't come forward because they are guilty as charged' - i.e. think very carefully about exoneration."

A spokesperson for the Post Office said it was "very aware of the terrible impact from this appalling scandal and miscarriage of justice".

"We refute both the assertions put to us and the words and phrases allegedly used, and are focused on supporting the government's plans for faster justice and redress for victims, as well as helping the Inquiry get to the truth of what happened," they said.

The spokesperson added: "In no sense did the Post Office seek to persuade government against mass exoneration. We remain firmly committed to supporting faster justice and redress for victims".

• LISTEN: The extraordinary story of a decade-long battle with the Post Office, fought by their own sub-postmasters, on BBC Sounds.

Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

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Boy, 2, missing after falling into river in Leicester - Sky News

A search operation is under way after a two-year-old boy fell into the River Soar in Leicester on Sunday evening.

Emergency services attended the scene in Aylestone Meadows, close to Marsden Lane, just after 5pm.

The child was with his family when the incident occurred but was not located "despite the best efforts of those at the scene", Leicestershire Police said.

Image: Pic: Leicester Media

A man was taken to hospital "as a precautionary measure".

Additional specialist teams will join the search operation on Monday morning.

Police said they have received several offers of help with the search but warned the public not to attend the scene due to rising water levels and safety risks.

In a statement, Leicestershire Police said: "The child's family are being supported by specialist officers and our thoughts are with them at this extremely difficult time.

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Sir John Curtice: In some ways, Reform is as big a problem as Labour for Sunak now - The Telegraph

Last year should have been one of personal milestones for Prof Sir John Curtice. In December, he turned 70. Eight months earlier, his wife, Lisa, hit the same age. For that, they and their daughter, plus her husband and two young children, celebrated by renting some rooms in a castle in Stirlingshire. When Curtice’s turn rolled around, though, he just decided to ignore it entirely.

“Ye-ess,” he says, waving the air impatiently, “work was just far too busy. But I am 70 and I’m still in employment. So thank God for the government that brought in age discrimination legislation…”

Officially, Sir John is professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, president of the British Polling Council and senior research fellow at both the National Centre for Social Research and UK in a Changing Europe.

Unofficially, he is simply the nation’s foremost political polling guru; a boffin of such unerring accuracy and phlegmatic delivery that his input to the BBC’s election nights – interpreting exit polls, explaining voting trends, sitting on high like the umpire of democracy – have given him a cult following. “Is Sir John Curtice On TV?” asks a Twitter/X account with 12,000 followers. Invariably, he is.

“I don’t pay attention to that stuff or follow parody accounts. But people come up to me in the street, and they’re usually very nice, asking for a selfie. I suppose the people who think I’m a load of bloody nonsense don’t bother.”

‘The Tories are having an existential crisis’

Sir John has studied politics for over 45 years, but the last dozen have been the wildest. “Ever since the SNP got the overall majority in 2011 and Cameron decided to hold the independence referendum, British politics has faced some pretty remarkable challenges,” he says.

“First there was the Scotland question, then the 2015 election, paving the way for the EU referendum; Theresa May and parliament getting stuck on Brexit while the Conservatives and Labour look in deep, deep trouble; then along comes Boris with a majority, then some quiet but oh – a pandemic. Then straight into partygate and Tory leadership elections; then Elizabeth II dies, Liz Truss arrives and is a complete disaster… And so now we have this situation where the opposition party, even though everyone thought it faced this insurmountable hurdle, are now odds-on favourites to win the general election.”

‘Sunak loves a spreadsheet, he’s a details person’

Given it is now election year, he’s about to get even busier. He arrives at a hotel just off Whitehall looking like a man in a hurry: tweed flat cap, grey suit, sensible raincoat, practical black trainer-shoe hybrids.

Affable and eccentric, with wild tufts of white candyfloss hair, he looks like Doc Brown in Back to the Future or a phenomenally cerebral Roman senator.

“So this is one of those personality things, is it?” he says. “Why do you want to talk to me?” Well, I say, it’s the election soon, and you’re Professor Sir John Curtice. A sigh. “I see. All right.”

Sir John is down in London for a few days for meetings, interviews and events. It’s a trip he makes from his home in Glasgow so often he’s worked out how to get precisely six hours of sleep on the Caledonian sleeper. “But my ideal exciting day is one where I get up in the morning at home, I’m in front of my laptop at 9am, I do not get disturbed by journalists, and at the end of the day I have something to show for it.”

I suspect he secretly enjoys being so in demand – not that anyone sees the next election as on a knife-edge. Sir John certainly doesn’t as last week’s by-election results confirmed. Speaking briefly on the phone, on Friday afternoon, after not having slept for over 30 hours, things had gone more or less as expected.

“I didn’t necessarily expect the Conservatives to do quite as badly in Wellingborough, but certainly Reform doing better and the Conservatives coming a cropper was the central expectation.” It is clear that Reform is now a major thorn in the Tories’ side.

“Richard Tice is determined to stand everywhere, they feel the Conservatives have failed to deliver on Brexit, failed to deliver on immigration and failed to deliver on tax, so basically the Conservatives are being attacked on their Right by people who think they’ve not upheld the true faith. And that’s always difficult,” Sir John says.

“The problem they’ve got is that we’re already looking at serious fracturing of the Leave coalition that got the Conservatives into power in 2019. Virtually everybody who votes for Reform is a Brexiteer, so there’s a risk of making the fracturing of that crucial Leave coalition even worse.”

Is Reform almost a bigger problem than Labour for Sunak now? “Not really, because if you lose a vote to Labour they’re in the position to turn that into seats, whereas Reform aren’t. But in terms of the flow of the vote, yes. Basically, the by-elections mirror the message of the opinion polls: that roughly speaking, for every one person switching from Conservative to Labour, there’s another one switching to Reform.”

As it stands, then, Labour’s lead is strong and stable at around 20 points. “Aside from Reform UK showing a bit of life, nothing of great note has happened in 16 months. The Conservatives were recovering a bit, but they then made the fatal mistake of not falling in behind the Privileges Committee’s report on Boris Johnson, and such progresses they made disappeared,” Sir John says.

“It looks increasingly like the Conservative Party doesn’t understand the pickle it’s in, the source of its difficulties, or certainly hasn’t identified an effective way out. Time’s running out and history’s also against it.” It is a party “having an existential crisis”, he adds, and “it may be the case that in deciding to focus on immigration, the Tories just handed votes to Reform. All they’ve done is a) Advertise their failure and b) Advertise their division.”

In a way, he thinks, Labour have it easy. “Basically, the Conservative Party said to itself: ‘We’re in deep trouble, we’ve increased the role of the state, we’ve increased taxation substantially and we haven’t delivered on immigration – that’s why we’re down in the polls.’ This is almost certainly a non sequitur. The reason they’re down in the polls is simple. One, the state of the economy; two, the state of the health service; and three, Boris Johnson. So on the economy, Labour can just pin the tail on the donkey and say: ‘It’s the Tories wot did it!’”

But Sir Keir Starmer shouldn’t jump for joy just yet. “Keir Starmer hasn’t won the hearts and minds of the country. He has convinced people [Labour] are reasonably moderate and that they can conceive of him as prime minister – that he won’t upset the applecart. But there’s no enthusiasm and that’s potentially a problem.”

‘Starmer’s skillset is that he’s a brilliant prosecution lawyer’

Not least because the issues that did for the Tories will linger, and require cash. “As one economist said to me recently, ‘What’s the point of a socially democratic government when there isn’t any money to spend?’ It becomes very difficult to satisfy your constituency. You can see the Tories are in trouble now, but you can also see how after 18 months of a Labour government, assuming the Tories don’t engage in fratricidal warfare, the Labour Party could find itself in a pretty difficult position as well.”

A one-term government, then? Sir John inhales sharply, then gives a firm nod. “Potentially, yes. If lots of Tories manage to avoid imploding…” So despite appearances, it’s actually a more interesting election than it seems? “Yes, it is.”

‘Intellectuals tend not to be very good at politics’

An only child, Sir John was born and raised in St Austell, Cornwall. His father was a joiner; his mother a part-time market researcher. “Lower middle stroke skilled working class. My grandfather refused to pay for my mother to go to grammar school, and that’s something she long held against him. So she was very keen to promote my education.”

Both grandfathers were miners, but the maternal side was also politically active. Sir John’s mother became a councillor for the Liberals, while her brother was a Labour supporter.

“I certainly remember the occasional political argument around the kitchen table.” A bookish child, Sir John found it fascinating how people under the same roof could have very different views about the world. “Though my first political memory is the death of Hugh Gaitskell [in 1963, when he was 10], and the subsequent Labour leadership election. I just found it interesting – don’t ask me why.”

Sir John enjoys identifying “key moments” in narrative trends, and he cites two in his early life. “One was when I started doing A-levels and we were told that it’s not about learning things, it’s about arguing and debating. I went: ‘Oh, this is much more interesting.’ One of my traits is that I’m pretty willing to challenge conventional wisdom, which started at 16. And the second was getting to university and deciding the academic life looks quite good.”

He read politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at Magdalen College, Oxford, before transferring to Nuffield College as a postgraduate. Sir Tony Blair was a contemporary, “but he wasn’t involved in politics.” More into pretending to be Mick Jagger? “Yes, indeed. John Hutton and Chris Huhne were also around, though in those days Huhne was definitely a member of the Labour Party.”

‘People come up to me in the street, and they’re usually very nice, asking for a selfie’ Credit: Geoff Pugh

Sir John “hung around” Oxford teaching for a few years, and ended up tutoring William Hague, “so that’s my principal achievement.” Lord Hague was an MP at 27 and a minister at 31, of course.

“Hague was just your classic intelligent layperson, born for PPE. He spent most of his time in the union. Didn’t do a lot of work, but obviously just knuckled down six weeks before finals and got a first. He was one of those people who could mug it up, write the essay quickly, and talk the talk… You’ve probably had plenty of those in your office, haven’t you?” Well, I think one of them became prime minister. Curtice giggles. “Indeed.”

Incidentally, Boris Johnson is one of the three “titans of post-war politics” that Sir John sets apart from all other politicians he’s witnessed. The others are Sir Tony and Margaret Thatcher. He never considered becoming a politician himself: “I’m too cussed, too individualistic.”

Besides, “to some degree I’m a jester, a licensed fool; under the guise of impartiality or academic dottiness, you’re given a licence to say what other people won’t say. I take the view that intellectuals tend not to be very good at politics. You need to be articulate, you need to be good at communication, you need to be able to construct a narrative and set out a vision; but you also need not to have self-doubt – and that’s a crucial feature of academic life.”

It is a strange, rare combination of skills in a person. The best he’s seen is Sir Tony Blair, “who could just command the attention of the British public and construct a narrative, and apart from eventually becoming undone, he was pretty good at government.

Johnson, Thatcher and Blair are, according tot Curtice, the ‘titans of post-war politics’ Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images | Jamie Hodgson/Getty Images | Medhi Fedouach/AFP/Getty Images

“It’s on that last point that puts him ahead of Boris, a consummate campaigner who ended up being lousy in government. Wrong skillset. He was a prime minister for good times, not a pandemic. And Thatcher was a good communicator, but again came undone and out of touch. Until the latter end of her premiership, though, she was probably the most skillful. These are the three titans.”

At Oxford, Sir John’s mentor was the political scientist David Butler, a psephologist who was a commentator on the BBC’s election night coverage from 1950 to 1979 and co-invented the swingometer. Under Butler, Sir John came to understand just how important quantitative analysis could be, especially in the burgeoning computer age. When most academics were still using slide rules, he gained computer skills; he soon succeeded Butler as the BBC’s go-to election night interpreter.

He has now worked on every general election since 1979, making the next one his 11th, and the 18th of his lifetime. So I wonder how he rates the current crop of leaders.

“One of the problems we have at the moment is that I don’t think either Sunak, or Starmer, or Davey, or frankly Yusuf, really have the skillset to be a political leader. Starmer and Sunak are professionally highly competent, but Sunak’s skillset is he loves a spreadsheet, he’s a details person, like Gordon Brown,” Sir John says.

“Starmer’s skillset is that he’s a brilliant prosecution lawyer. These are not unuseful skillsets in government, but they’re not the things that enable you to communicate with the wider public.”

And those are the best we have. Is this the weakest group of leaders he’s ever seen fight a general election? He thinks for a moment. “Yes, probably.” 

‘The 1975 EU referendum didn’t settle the issue and it’s pretty clear 2016’s didn’t either’

Sir John won’t be telling me who wins his own vote, but he will admit he’s not always voted the same way. There are no MPs he would consider friends, and he has clear rules: to never take money from a political party or organisation close to parties; and he’ll tell nobody anything in private he wouldn’t be willing to say in public.

It helps that he doesn’t live in Westminster – or even England. Meaning you won’t find him ensconced in the Carlton Club of an evening. If he does stay in the capital, it’s often with his daughter, a senior civil servant, and her family in south London. “I spend most of my time reading computer tables, not running around SW1.”

His wife, Lisa, decided in recent years to become a full-time Anglican priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Sir John too is a regular churchgoer. “One of the reasons I’m still in employment is, shall we say, that she’s not at home waiting for me to take her to Amsterdam every weekend.” They relax by tending to their allotment.

“My great salvation. I try to get to it most weekends – winter veg, summer fruit. It’s two or three hours of physical exercise, which helps keep the weight down, and it means I’ve got something else to worry about for a bit. But it’s been a lousy winter.” Nature isn’t as predictable as the voting public.

He’s come to learn that he needs some sleep, but “you have to be able to do all night” every few months. His BBC election coverage tends to be fuelled by just coffee. He’ll be back this year, though with David Dimbleby retiring and Huw Edwards unwell, nobody knows who’ll be sitting beside him. “And I don’t either.” 

He cites 1992 as his greatest failure, when polls suggested a hung parliament or narrow Labour majority. In the end, it was a fourth consecutive victory for the Tories. “The polling wrongfooted us quite badly.”

His greatest triumph, on the other hand, was surely 2017, when his remarkable exit poll revealed Theresa May could lose her parliamentary majority, then the real results matched it almost identically. He was heralded as “the man who won the election” and knighted the following year.

Sir John receiving his Knighthood in 2018 Credit: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Not that he let fame go to his head – his wife and daughter put paid to that. “They are aware of my cult status. Or supposed cult status. I think they are both sufficiently strong personalities with their own interests and careers that they wear it lightly, and treat me with the due level of disrespect that all daughters and wives should have for their fathers and husbands.” 

We’re in for another unpredictable decade. He can say with certainty that the debate over the EU “isn’t over”, and given the age profile of the Leave vote, the issue will resurface in the long run, “because the 1975 referendum didn’t settle the issue, and it’s pretty clear 2016’s didn’t either”. The same is true of the situation north of the border.

But soon there is a general election that will require an almighty shift to generate surprise. “The Tories have to do more than deny Labour an overall majority, they’ve got to get to about 320 seats otherwise they are stuffed. Beyond the DUP, they have no friends in the House of Commons. So even if they get fewer seats, Labour will form a government. You’re talking about the Tories having to get back to at least even-stevens, probably a bit better.”

And at 70-years-old and after 45 years dancing on the polls, it might, just might, end up Sir John’s last. He clinks down his cappuccino. “Inevitably,” he says, “I may well ask myself after the next general election, ‘Well, maybe it’s time to wind down?’” 

As ever, though, it’s a matter of reading the trends. “I’m not sending out any signals. I’m just aware that’s something you should constantly evaluate, then reevaluate.”

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Shoreditch: Boy, 17, dies after being stabbed in east London - Sky News

A 17-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in east London.

Emergency services were called to Hackney Road, Shoreditch, at around 10.50pm on Saturday.

The victim was found with stab injuries and died at the scene.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway said: "My thoughts are with the family of the young person who has tragically lost his life.

"I can assure them that we will be relentless in seeking to identify whoever was responsible for this murder.

"Cordons are in place in Hackney Road for forensic examination of the scene and we have launched what will be an extremely thorough investigation, supported by specialists from across the Met.

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"Local people will also see additional patrols in Shoreditch. If you have any concerns or information, please speak with those officers. They are there to support you."

A post-mortem and formal identification are yet to take place. No one has been arrested.

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