OTD in early British television reprises
John Wyver writes: Once again, 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 contributing a weekly reprise round-up. All of this 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: 17 December 1936: Thursday 17 December 1936 saw an edition of one of the first television series, London Characters. In a 7-minute broadcast John Snuggs, ‘the troubadour’, demonstrated paper tearing with his partner accordionist, Van Hornibrook. Others who featured in this occasional, short-lived strand included ex-Pipe Major Massie, ‘the bagpipes man from Trafalgar Square and John Cairns, street busker.
• OTD in early British television: 18 December 1938: 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 a clutch of major drama productions over the Christmas period, including Noel Coward’s Hay Fever on Christmas night, an Edgar Wallace thriller, The Ringer, a re-run of Once in a Lifetime, and on the evening of Sunday 18 December, Gordon Daviot’s Richard of Bordeaux.
• OTD in early British television: 19 December 1928: 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. The Baird Concert Party offered ‘songs and patter’ from A.F. (‘Peter’) Birch, who is on the right in the photograph, and performances from baritone A. Calkin and comedian Reginald Shaw, with piano contributions from Constance (‘Connie’) King and Philip Hobson.
• OTD in early British television: 20 December 1938: The evening line-up from Alexandra Palace on Tuesday 20 December 1938 featured a News Map talk about Poland and what was billed as Tactile Bee, in which blindfolded celebs of the day, including John Betjeman and Secrets of Life filmmaker Mary Field, identified objects by touch. Just before 10.30pm an unscheduled 11-minute outside broadcast took the viewer to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for a preview of the following day’s broadcast of ‘King of Pantomime’ Tom Arnold’s spectacular Babes in the Wood.
• OTD in early British television: 21 December 1936: 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 the significant technical constraints of the Baird company technology, producer George More O’Ferrall was felt to have achieved a polished and innovative live broadcast. But it is one reception context that makes this transmission notable, for it was watched on this day by some three hundred luminaries of stage and screen in the auditorium of the West End theatre where the production was currently running.
• OTD in early British television: 22 December 1936: The afternoon of Tuesday 22 December 1936 saw a 14-minute lecture by Yarrow Research Professor to the Royal Society G.I. Taylor about the stabilisation of ships and why they roll in a rough sea. This was the first televised Royal Institution lecture for children, a tradition that continues this year with lectures by Maggie Aderin-Pocock but now only as streaming.
• OTD in early British television: 23 December: Christmas Eve 1937 featured Polite Wine Drinking on this day in 1937, and then The Director of Television in the Witness Box, shown on Friday 23 December 1938. The former was a component of Alexandra Palace’s aspirational lifestyle propgramming that also featured bridge, ballroom dancing and tennis lessons. The format was simplicity itself: sat at a dinner table chef Marcel Boulestin mansplained wine in an off-the-cuff manner to Nesta Sawyer.
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