John Wyver writes: here’s the third holiday round-up of blog posts from the past month that I have written as preparation for the publication of my book, Magic Rays of Light: British Television between the Wars. The first collection is here, more
John Wyver writes: here's a second holiday round-up of blog posts from the past month that I have written as preparation for the publication of my book, Magic Rays of Light: British Television between the Wars. The first collection more
John Wyver writes: for a month now, I have been writing more or less daily blog posts about pre-war British television, linking each one to a programme or event that took place on the same in one of the years more
John Wyver writes: for whatever reason, pre-war television on Christmas Eve was largely unremarkable, although the Baird Company's 30-line broadcast on 24 December 1931 appears to have been the first to be described in the billings as 'A Christmas programme'. Frustratingly, more
John Wyver writes: spoiled for the eve of Christmas Eve choice today, I think we might attempt a double-header, celebrating Polite Wine Drinking (above) on this day in 1937, and then The Director of Television in the Witness Box, shown more
John Wyver writes: the afternoon of Tuesday 22 December 1936 saw a 14-minute lecture by Yarrow Research Professor to the Royal Society G.I. Taylor (above) about the stabilisation of ships and why they roll in a rough sea. This was more
John Wyver writes: On the evening of Monday 21 December 1936 extracts from from the current stage production T.S. Eliot's religious drama Murder in the Cathedral were played for a third time at Alexandra Palace. Despite having to work within more
John Wyver writes: The evening line-up from Alexandra Palace on Tuesday 20 December 1938 featured a News Map talk about Poland, a concert by Eric Wild and his Band, and what was billed as Tactile Bee, in which blindfolded celebs more
John Wyver writes: Wednesday 19 December 1928 saw one of the earliest documented trasnmissions from the new studio (above, from Television, December 1928) of the Baird Television Development Corporation at 133 Long Acre in London's Covent Garden. Four days after the more
John Wyver writes: There was a sense of increasing confidence at Alexandra Palace at the end of 1938, with sales of receivers finally picking up and programmes becoming both more ambitious and more polished. This was reflected in announcements for more