A week after one of the most sensational nights in US political history, Poole People contributor Sophie Osborn’s blog asks if life in the White House is set to imitate art.

President-Elect Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s speech to over a quarter of a million people in Grant Park, Chicago, this morning will surely go down in history as the moment when the first black president-elect declared, “change has come to America”.

I was lucky enough to catch the speech live at 5am. I hadn’t stayed awake all night, following every declaration, but had gambled on an early start. And it was a gamble that paid off. 

I heard an impressive orator;  calm, confident and intelligent summarising a 21-month campaign which had motivated Americans across the country to queue for hours to exercise their democratic right to vote.

And as only an American speaker can, Barack Obama had thousands in his live audience repeatedly responding, “yes we can” as he set out his vision for a future of hope, hard work and sacrifice.

Barack The Builder assured the people of the United States, and millions watching around the world, that if there was trouble ahead, he could fix it.

An hour later, I turned off the television news to make a cup of tea.

In the intervening sixty minutes there had been little to inspire me in Britain’s breakfast television coverage. The election result had come through much more quickly than in previous years and it seemed the British networks had been caught napping at the end of a long night.

Before the six am handover, I was able to watch David Dimbleby and a panel of journalists, former journalists and presidential aides debating the significance of the night on the BBC, and over on the more financially-challenged ITV special I caught a solitary Alastair Stewart rounding off the night by reading from Barack Obama’s autobiography.

At six am, the BBC’s Breakfast news team took over with Bill on his own in Washington and Sian on her own in London, while over on GMTV I caught John Stapleton describing Obama’s celebrity status. On several channels I saw the President-elect’s Kenyan grandmother celebrating, but even though the BBC had Karen Allen live on the spot, nobody on any channel actually asked this elderly, black Kenyan lady what she thought.

The opening news package summing up the night’s tumultuous events included one sound byte from Obama’s seminal speech, but then we were off to a weary Clive Myrie declaring he was one of the last two journalists still doing two-ways from Martin Luther King’s Alabama alma mater, before we switched to a live from New York featuring two bloggers telling us what they thought. I saw a quote from twitter, but still not a word from the lady in Kenya.

So, hoping to catch the Obama speech again, I hit the red button on my remote control. And what did I find? David Dimbleby on a looped piece of film declaring the moment the election had been won, over and over again. But none of the four screens had either Obama’s victory speech or the magnanimous McCain’s Arizona address.

Over on Sky, I was offered both speeches on their interactive service according to the news ticker, only to find that the Sky red button does not work on my TV.

And that’s when I put the kettle on. Fed on slender sound bytes and endless two-ways and commentary, I was a frustrated viewer in the land of the Freeview box.

Written by Up To Speed’s Tom Hill, who is a former producer for the BBC, ITV, Sky and GMTV.

1. Barack Obama is running for president.

2. The soldier was confined to barracks.

3. She was the face of Chanel.

4. The English Channel is a busy shipping lane.

5. The hurricane hit Haiti.

6. It’s one half of an island in the Caribbean.

7. Chris Huhne is the Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman. 

8. Geoff Hoon is the new Transport Secretary.

9. Peter Mandelson is back.

10. David and Ed Miliband are both in the Cabinet.