John Wyver writes: On what from production photographs looks like a rainy Tuesday afternoon on 20 April 1937, the fledgling Television service at Alexandra Palace, ever in search of noteworthy elements to broadcast, elected to screen as a local OB more
John Wyver writes: Television's treat on the evening of Tuesday 18 April 1939 was the third Coliseum Night presenting the first half of the variety bill at Sir Oswald Stoll's flagship theatre in London's St Martin's Lane. Featured artists more
John Wyver writes: Just after 3pm on Saturday 17 April 1937 BBC Television began an 'outside broadcast' from the railway terminus adjacent to Alexandra Palace. Billed as Demonstration of Railway Locomotives, and organised with London North Eastern Railway, the transmission more
John Wyver writes: Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born 136 years ago today. To mark his 50th birthday on Sunday 16 April 1939, when Charlie was working on the script for The Great Dictator (1940), Alexandra Palace screened an more
John Wyver writes: Lest these posts give the impression that pre-war television from Alexandra Palace was all classical ballet and mimed Wagner, the evening of Saturday 15 April 1939 was one of seven occasions when the studio hosted more
John Wyver writes: At one minute past 3pm on the afternoon of Thursday 14 April 1938, Alexandra Palace switched over to a feed from a studio built inside the Ideal Home Exhibition. In a first 10-minute visit to Olympia, more
24 January 1938 John Wyver writes: As I am holiday this week I am posting again a number of my favourite OTDs to date. The whole of the afternoon schedule on Monday 24 January 1938 was occupied by a presentation of act more
9 February 1939 John Wyver writes: As I am on holiday this week I am taking the chance to post again a number of my favourite OTDs from the 122 published to date... The evening of Thursday 9 February 1939 saw a more
22 February 1933 John Wyver writes: As I am on holiday this week, I am presenting again some of my favourite OTD posts, exactly as they first appeared... Today's post is a melancholy little tale of a short, vibrant life in which more
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 more