OTD in early British television: 14 March 1938
John Wyver writes: Cabaret: Sound and Vision was the rather clunky title of a 40-minute variety bill on the evening of Monday 14th March. In many ways it was standard AP fare, with compère Russell Swann introducing a line-up of The Grosvenor House Charm Girls tap dancing to ‘Gentlemen, the Choice is Yours’ (above, in this broadcast), along with impersonations from Nelson Keys and American singer Niela Goodelle.
The programme, however, is notable because it was one of a series of largely unsuccessful experiments in simulcasting television from AP with radio’s Regional programme. Radio Times assured readers (and listeners) that it
has been designed to provide an entertainment of equal interest to both listeners and viewers. It is not merely the sound part of a television broadcast, but it is a complete radio programme in itself.
The Television service from AP was not initially taken very seriously by those preoccupied by the BBC’s core business of radio. With its geographically distant base, staffed largely by producers from beyond radio, and watched by very few, it was of marginal interest to many at the heart of the Corporation.
At the start director of television Gerald Cock was able to exploit this lack of interest among his peers, and programme decisions were made by his tight team of AP acolytes with minimal reference upwards. A year in, however, questions of control and responsibility began to concern controller of programmes Cecil Graves, to whom Cock notionally reported.
Graves pushed his radio colleagues to take a greater interest in what was happening in television, and encouraged them to develop plans for programmes, and specifically variety, that could be shared between the two forms. A first and largely disastrous experiment was tried in April 1937, and a second attempt was no more successful.
Variety department at Broadcasting House continued to raise a string of concerns, but Graves’ imperative resulted in two further Regional Programme relays of AP cabarets in early 1938, of which Cabaret: Sound and Vision on 14 March was the second.
The experiments were so poor that a trade press observer proposed, ‘[t]he treatment that the first dual programme received seemed to indicate that there were interests antagonistic to television at work.’ Indeed, through the extensive documentation of discussions about marrying sound and vision run the tensions that were emerging between Broadcasting House and AP.
Despite the logistical problems, exacerbated by radio planning longer in advance than television, the impetus towards a closer relationship claimed increasing attention. The Television Advisory Committee kept up the pressure, believing that the sharing of programmes might help with the challenges of funding television. The Radio Manufacturers’ Association also lobbied for the idea, since for those who were trying to sell television sets, the ‘marriage’ was seen as a potential solution to the restrictions on the programme hours of the service.
Although clearly reluctant, Television kept trying to make the ‘marriage’ work. One journalist responded that he was ‘dubious of the success of this attempt to serve two masters and the artists on the screen showed that they were either thinking of one thing or the other.’
Nonetheless, several more cabaret transmissions were shared from the 1938 Radiolympia show, and a further experiment was tried in April 1939. Despite concerns about running times being unpredictable, and about the suitability of television drama for sound only transmission, the audio of the second broadcast of J.M. Barrie’s single act Shall We Join the Ladies? was carried in the afternoon schedule of the Regional programme.
Evertything that was tried, however, proved to be unsatisfactory, and the issue remained unresolved when the imminent war closed down the television service on 1 September 1939.
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