BBC Breakfast: Stacey Dooley discusses Strictly Come Dancing
Reeta Chakrabarti is one of the most familiar faces on BBC News, having a key role on the election night coverage.
But once the count is done, thoughts will turn quickly to Strictly Come Dancing in the autumn.
In fact, many TV journalists have waltzed their way to even greater fame -- Susanna Reid, Kate Garraway, Khristian Guru-Murthy, Ranveer Singh, and Angela Rippon.
It’s definitely something the long-time BBC staffer has thought about.
Chakrabarti, 59, said: “I've never been offered it,” she admits, “but I do get asked about Strictly by people, and this is a very head and heart division.
“My heart says how wonderful it would be. And the head says, ‘I don't think that it goes with reading serious stories on the news’. And the news is serious, isn't it? You know, it can be awfully grim.
“I know that Krishnan Guru-Murthy [Channel 4] carried it off with style, and that’s great…
“I think that's a very long-winded way of saying ‘No’.”
Back to the election, she believes the BBC “will bring the nation together” whatever the election result.
Reeta will be in the BBC’s London studio analysing the results as they come in – as well as dealing with Jeremy Vine’s Swingometer from Cardiff.
“As a long-time BBC staff member,” she says, “it is sort of heartening, really, that there is a unifying role that the BBC does play.
“We do bring the nation together at times like this.”
The BBC journalist has been swotting up for the big night.
“I wish I had some sort of slick and clever formula but there's really no mystery to it. I just read as much as I can. I go through all the constituencies, I sit down in an old-fashioned pen and paper way, and I type it off again. And, you know, you hope some of it sticks.”
Reeta admits she’s been thinking about nothing else.
“My life has been entirely election driven. Everything else is put on one side, really. So I am part-immersed in it all, and that's helpful, because I am reading everything as we all are, you know, and travelling around little bit and getting a flavour of the issues in certain places.”
The campaign, she says, has been “fascinating”.
“The TV debates have been very interesting. I know that views are mixed about that, but I do like them. It's a chance to see people up close, and to a certain extent, that's my job, and I watch them all the time.”
With a polarised media, Reeta believes the BBC is needed more than ever.
“People come to the BBC for big national events, they always have and they always will.
“Sometimes we're very highly scrutinized and possibly more criticized than other outlets. You know, if we do something that people disagree with, or if we make a very occasional mistake, I still think people come to the BBC at times of big national events.
She’s proud of their impartiality.
“I've worked at the BBC for so long that I feel impartiality sort of runs through me, really.
“I think we've got to be impartial in a world where there's so much opinion posing as fact, there's so much disinformation, there's so many people who just sit in a comfortable echo chamber of their own views.
“I think the BBC try to keep other organisations honest.”
Asked what she thinks of GB News, she replies: “Well, I wouldn't dare say anything about that. I'm a BBC employee – and I believe in the Beeb.”
Does she have an election prediction? “I would be such a fool to predict, wouldn't I? The polls do suggest an at least a comfortable Labour majority, but we just don't know.”
