John Wyver writes: readers of The Era daily on Wednesday 6 February 1935 enjoyed two stories about television that, exactly 90 years on, suggest how unstable the very idea of television was then. Under the heading "Tellies" there was speculation more
John Wyver writes: The evening of Sunday 5 February 1939 was taken up with a 105-minute version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with John Abbott as Prospero and actor, writer and poet Stephen Haggard as Ariel. Playing Caliban was more
John Wyver writes: 'Oho! Here's another television experiment,' is how Grace Wyndham Goldie began her review of Death at Newtownstewart, first broadcast on the afternoon of Friday 3 February 1939. The critic's top line response was that, 'it failed.' Nonetheless, more
John Wyver writes: On Wednesday 2 February 1938 The Times reported that, 'A television set with a screen about twice the size of that in the standard home receiver was demonstrated by the Marconi-EMI company in London last night.' This more
John Wyver writes: In the depths of winter, on the afternoon of Wednesday 1 February 1939, one of the mobile outside broadcast units made a first visit to Bulls Cross Farm at Waltham Cross, just off the A10 10 miles more
John Wyver writes: The last day of January 1935 was publication day for one of the most consequential documents in British television history: the Report of the Television Committee chaired by Lord Selsdon. Among other matters, this determined that more
John Wyver writes: another significant moment for the 'high definition' service from Alexandra Palace. Saturday 30 January 1937 was the last day on which the Baird system for producing and transmitting 240-line images was used. After this, AP relied more
John Wyver writes: A fortnight ago, one of the two mobile outside broadcast units took us to Watford Junction railway station for the first of a Sunday afternoon outing series titled Television Surveys. On Sunday 29 January, while its more
John Wyver writes: Let us return to table tennis on television. A week ago on this blog, we saw a studio demonstration on 22 January 1938. A year on, on Saturday 28 January 1939, we can travel with one more
John Wyver writes: At Alexandra Palace on Wednesday 27 January 1937 painter and printmaker John Piper (above) discussed 'The picture in the modern home' with architect and designer Serge Chermayeff. In London Galleries - Art and Modern Architecture, more