OTD in early British television reprises
John Wyver writes: As I noted last week, since I have contributed here more than a year of near-daily posts recognising ‘on this day’ events in the first decade of British television, I am now proposing a weekly reprise round-up. All of this, of course, is part of the run-up to publication by Bloomsbury and the BFI on 8 January of my book Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain. So for today and the coming week, here are links to the posts from a year back:
• OTD in early British television: 10 December 1937: Scenes from Macbeth broadcast in the afternoon from Alexandra Palace, with a transfer to the studio of part of Michel Saint-Denis’ production with Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson.
• OTD in early British television: 11 December 1937: the evening schedule featured an ambitious half-hour of act 3 of Verdi’s Aida given by the Matania Operatic Society under producer Dallas Bower; this was one of television’s first presentations of ‘grand’ opera.
• OTD in early British television: 12 December 1936: just six weeks into the AP service, a spectacular demonstration on the studio terrace of the Territorial Army for the Battalion 61st (11th London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, R.A., and the 36th Middlesex Anti-Aircraft, R.E., being put through their paces.
• OTD in early British television: 13 December 1937: the most ambitious television ballet to date, act 2 of Swan Lake by the Vic-Wells Ballet Company, from which chrysalis the Royal Ballet would emerge post-war; this was their production under D.H. Munro that had premiered in November 1934.
• OTD in early British television: 14 December 1936: no television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace on Monday 14 December 1936, and only an apologetic mid-evening sound announcement. A fierce gale had damaged the transmission mast and taken the service off-air.
• OTD in early British television: 15 December 1928: Saturday 15 December 1928, 97 years ago today, is a milestone date in the history of early television in Britain, since the day saw the transmission of the first television drama in Britain, a version of John Maddison Morton’s Box and Cox (above).
• OTD in early British television: 16 December 1937: the sixth Experiments in Science, a 16-minute edition with the subtitle Reconstructing the Past, with Margot Eates of the Institute of Archaeology demonstrating the reconstruction of prehistoric fragments of pottery from Maiden Castle in Dorset.
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