OTD in early British television: 3 August 1939
John Wyver writes: Sandwiched between a newsreel and a cartoon on the evening of Thursday 3 August was a quintessential example of television as a public service – and arguably further evidence of the BBC preparing the audience for the coming war.
Blood Donors was a 13-minute explanation and studio demonstration performed by Dr Jessop from University College Hospital. The donor’s name is recorded to history as one J. Markby.
That day’s Manchester Guardian outlined the purpose and plan for the broadcast:
More people, it is believed, would respond to the appeal for blood donors if they knew clearly what was expected of them and what happened when their blood was taken…
Doctors and their assistants from University College blood donors’ unit will take their apparatus to Alexandra Palace. where a volunteer will be tested before the· cameras for the qualjty of his blood. A doctor will then explain the different categories in which blood donors are placed.
Viewers will next see how a pint of blood is taken from a volunteer and how, if it is not used immediately, it is refrigerated for future use. The point of the broadcast is to show that the operation of the blood test and transfusion is extremely simple, and that the donors suffer no inconvenience.
[OTD post no. 229; part of a long-running series leading up to the publication on 8 January 2026 of my book Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain, which can now be pre-ordered from Bloomsbury here.]
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