7th April 2025
19 January 1937
John Wyver writes: I am on holiday in France this week, and so with 122 original OTD posts out in the world I thought I might highlight once again six of my favourite posts to date. This one
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6th April 2025
John Wyver writes: Just before 10pm on Wednesday 6 April 1938, a 10-minute broadcast from Alexandra Palace presented Surya Sena and Nelun Devi (above) performing Sinhalese folk songs. The transmission was organised by producer and musicologist Philip Bate, who
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5th April 2025
John Wyver writes: Although we have next-to-know moving image records of pre-war television programmes, almost all of which were transmitted live, we do have elements of the transmissions in the form of the twice-weekly newsreels and the documentary films that
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4th April 2025
John Wyver writes: Afternoon transmissions on Monday 4 April 1938 were mostly taken up by a 45-minute 'feature' about Sir Christopher Wren. This dramatised presentation was scripted by playwright Christine Hahlo, whose only other credit I can find is
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3rd April 2025
John Wyver writes: On 3 April 1933 the BBC's 30-line producer Eustace Robb, who had been overseeing transmissions since the previous summer, mounted his most expansive musical production to date. Transmitted from the tiny studio BB at Broadcasting House, achieved
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2nd April 2025
John Wyver writes: Television on the afternoon of Sunday 2nd April was mostly occupied by the 40-minute feature Leviathan, described as 'a survey of sea-monsters, past and present'. A discussion between Lt-Commander R.T. Gould, author of The Case for the
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1st April 2025
John Wyver writes: After an hour or so's coverage of the Boat Race on the morning of Saturday 1 April 1939, that afternoon Alexandra Palace offered the television premiere of Michael Powell's 1937 feature film The Edge of the World.
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31st March 2025
John Wyver writes: At 9.06pm on Thursday 31 March 1938, AP presented The Hogarth Puppet Grostesques, produced and manipulated (along with Ann Hogarth and Kitty Tyzack) by Jan Bussell (above). On the programme were performances of 'The Puppet
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30th March 2025
John Wyver writes: To the South Pole on the evening of Tuesday 30 March 1937 marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions in the Antarctic. The half-hour studio programme brought together
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29th March 2025
John Wyver writes: In mid-March 1939, Alexandra Palace rolled out a metaphorical red carpet for the state visit of France’s President and Madame Lebrun. Alongside an outside broadcast of the King and Queen greeting the visitors at Victoria Station,
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