John Wyver writes: On Sunday 26 February 1939 Sight and Sound was a studio 'bee' hosted by Sir Kenneth Clark, youthful director of the National Gallery known to friends and peers as ‘K’. Seated in a wide semi-circle with more
John Wyver writes: Today is the 93rd anniversary of the earliest Shakespeare performance on British television that I can identify. In the morning of Thursday 25 February 1932, producer Harold Bradly in the Baird studio in Covent Garden's Long Acre, more
John Wyver writes: The evening schedule of Friday 24 February 1939 featured a half-hour police drama with a twist, since you, the viewer, were expected to solve the crime. The Fletcher Case was the third of the occasional Telecrime series, more
John Wyver writes: Characterised by The Times as ‘an animated scene’, the interior of the Marble Arch Pavilion cinema was packed on the evening of 23 February 1939 with ‘an audience of men and women who were evidently boxing enthusiasts.’ Every more
John Wyver writes: Making a Poster on the evening of Monday 21 February 1938 featured artist Dora Clarke, familiar from other AP broadcasts, taking the audience through the stages of producing what was not exactly a poster, but rather the more
John Wyver writes: Frustration reigned at AP on the afternoon of Saturday 20 February 1937 as it proved impossible to get the vision system working and between the sound-only transmission of records director of television Gerald Cock had to make more
John Wyver writes: The afternoon of Saturday 19 February 1938 saw high drama enacted in and around Alexandra Palace. Fire Up Aloft was a 25-minute fire-fighting demonstration given by members of the Enfield Fire Brigade, with the full-hearted participation of more
John Wyver writes: Just after 10pm on Saturday 18 February 1939 the AP schedule carried an unbilled 3-minute item titled Special Transmission. This was a short interview with the Mr Edgar Charloe of Acton about his suggestion for a 'Viewer's more
John Wyver writes: ‘We certainly live in a marvellous age,’ Amanda reflects to Elyot in the second act of Noel Coward's Private Lives. ‘Too marvellous,’ replies Elyot, noting, somewhat ambivalently, that among the marvels of the age are bovine gland more
John Wyver writes: In the afternoon and the evening of Tuesday 16 February 1937, Philip Thornton presented the fourth of six talks under the heading The Orchestra and its Instruments. 'Hybrid Winds', as the programme was subtitled, featured the perhaps more