Britain switches on and tunes in as the bbc puts the telly on for first time
Our viewing choices are in a golden period, with seemingly limitless options on satellite television and streaming services offering up programmes in every genre imaginable.
We even make our own content these days, with millions of hours of amateur footage available on Youtube, Tiktok and Facebook, to name a few.
The end result being, we could spend every hour of our lives sitting in front of the box and still not make a dent in the content.
So maybe the BBC’S first director of television, Gerald A Cock, was on to something when he ruled there should be breaks in transmission between programmes on Britain’s first TV station, in order to “avoid eye strain” for the viewers.
On November 2, 1936, the BBC Television Service began broadcasting from Alexandra Palace in London. It’s transmission times were 3pm-4pm and 9pm-10pm, Monday to Saturday, meaning there was very little chance of eye strain. The extended break was also designed to avoid interfering with domestic life, such as dinner time and children’s bed time.
That broadcast was the culmination of several years of test transmissions. The BBC began working with John Logie Baird towards the end of 1929 and, as the years went on, a team was assembled and a base established at Ally Pally.
Proceedings on the first broadcast began with a series of speeches from government officials and BBC executives, snappily titled Opening Of The BBC Television Service.
This was followed by a variety show, which would become a lynchpin of light entertainment TV.
Musical comedy star Adele Dixon sang Magic Rays Of Light, accompanied by the new BBC Television Orchestra with conductor Hyam Greenbaum. Also on the show was The Lai Founs, who were a plate-spinning act, and Buck and Bubbles, a comedy and dance act.
In the evening hour, Television Comes To London was a behind-the-scenes documentary giving viewers a glimpse at the television installation at Alexandra Palace and an insight into the production. Afterwards, there was Picture Page, a magazine show shining a light on people of interest, and finally, British Movietone News gave a 10-minute round-up of current affairs. It’s thought the shows went out to a potential audience of about 400 television owners dotted around London and the Home Counties.
While it was only 12 hours of programming per week, Cecil Madden, the BBC producer in charge of the output, had to produce a steady supply of material while working within the £100-a-day budget.
The BBC’S directorgeneral, John Reith, an imposing 6ft 6in son of a United Free Church minister from Stonehaven, had been wary of the format at first. But he admitted he was more impressed by television than he had expected, adding that it would likely develop faster than he ever anticipated.
He wasn’t wrong. Within a year, the BBC’S outside broadcast unit was utilised for the first time, to broadcast the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and then to cover Wimbledon, and later to show the first live football match – a game between Arsenal and Arsenal reserves at Highbury.
Television would soon become an integral part of our lives, and no warning of eye strain would put us off.