Programmes

Drama

The two lead actors embrace in fear, overlaid with the shadows of two INGSOC policemen
The play that caused a furore and added Big Brother to conversation – 1984, with Peter Cushing and Yvonne Mitchell.

The Sunday night play on BBC Television has become almost a national institution. Indeed, it is often said that television drama, entering, as it does, millions of homes, fills the need for a National Theatre in Britain. In 1946, when the BBC Television Service resumed after the war, the whole field of international theatre was ready to be explored. Since then the world’s plays, hundred by hundred, have been given new meaning and new audiences through the eyes of the television camera. Today the Drama Department is extending its scope; more and more plays are being specially written for the television screen. So the new writer takes his place alongside Ibsen and Shakespeare. And in these plays are presented some of Britain’s most distinguished actors and actresses.

The plays of Shakespeare are televised four times a year. In December 1955 Othello brought together an impressive trio — Gordon Heath as Othello, Rosemary Harris as Desdemona, and Paul Rogers as Iago.

Three actors appear in Othello
Actors in poverty clothing
...and Shout Aloud Salvation, originally produced in April 1951, brought to the screen a little-known actress named Virginia McKenna.
The cast struggle to remove a helmet from the first victim in Quatermass
In the summer of 1953, The Quatermass Experiment took viewers into the realms of other worlds. The popularity of this serial led to its sequel, Quatermass II, which took viewers into Outer Space.

Outside Broadcasts

When it happens… as it happens. The BBC Television outside broadcast camera brought a new dimension into life – the ability to see events as they took place, perhaps hundreds of miles away. Today, the outside broadcast camera ranges across the whole of our national life and activity. In the ten years since 1946, the BBC Outside Broadcast Department has taken the viewer into ships at sea, under the earth, up in the air, and under the sea. But in all the vast procession of events, perhaps one stands out as offering television its greatest challenge. On 2 June 1953, BBC cameras televised the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen.

The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II and her retinue parade down the aisle of Westminster Abbey
A camera and operator crammed into the rear-gunner position of an aeroplane

Up in the Air. In August 1955, BBC Television cameras took wings. One was mounted in the bomb-aimer’s position in a Varsity to bring dramatic pictures of the take-off and landing.

Into Ships at Sea… A month earlier, in July 1955, BBC Outside Broadcast cameras went aboard the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Bulwalk, which was at sea. This meant providing a link between the ship and the shore. So a combined power, transmitter, and aerial vehicle is hoisted on board the carrier.

A BBC OB van is winched aboard a sailing ship

… and under the sea. In June 1956, after months of experiment, the BBC television cameras went down in a submarine.

The captain views the scene via a periscope
A BBC camera points at a cricket match
The tranquil pleasure of the cricket field is relayed by the BBC camera to the home. The great sporting events, as in this fifth Test Match between England and South Africa, are now part of the service for BBC viewers. In the summer – visits to the Oval or Lord's and Wimbledon. In the winter – visits to Wembley or Twickenham. Television has brought a renewed interest in all kinds of sport.

Not all outside broadcasts take place outside. Sometimes the cameras go indoors – to see the show-places of Britain or to meet celebrities At Home. But, indoors or out, the operation is the same. Cameras have to be transported, cables laid, and the interviews prepared. Early in 1955 the BBC cameras went to meet Lady Barnett at her Leicestershire home. The cables, like so much spaghetti, have to be manœuvred through the window of the dining-room, and (right) the view that Lady Barnett got of the cables coming in. The men are used to such work. There are no breakages.

Two men climb through a window carrying wires
The same men feed the wires through the window
A chest of drawers is moved by two men
Little furniture is moved, so that the room shall be seen in its usual state. But in this case space had to be found for a light.
Barnett and Edgar look at a camera script
A few hours to go before the broadcast. Producer Barrie Edgar discusses on or two points with Lady Barnett.
Lady Barnett poses behind a BBC camera
A camera is installed in the corner of a room. Lady Barnett tries it out.
Sir Geoffrey and Lady Barnett

As the viewer saw Lady Barnett and her husband.

News

News knows no time boundaries. Day and night it pours into the BBC’s news headquarters. But news on television also means illustration. So there are cameramen ready to ‘shoot’ the news of the day. Behind them is a vast organization geared to presenting on the screen that night a complete survey of what happened, not only in this country but in all parts of the world.

Two men load equipment into the back of a car
A BBC cameraman and a sound recordist load up their gear to cover a story for Television News...
Film strips emerge from a bath into an editing machine

… and later, in the sound editing room at Alexandra Palace, the work of film man and recordist is ‘married’.

Films

Three aeroplanes
War in the Air
The sculptor at work with a hammer and chisel
Henry Moore
A statue atop a plinth in the square outside a grand stone building
Week-end in Europe
Bill, Weed and Ben
Flowerpot Men
Children sit on the ground watching something off camera
Severn West Ward

The BBC Television Service embraces the most extensive film operation in this country today. The department uses more than six million feet of film a year. Film sequences are to be found in all types of programme from documentary to light entertainment and viewers have seen many films specially made by the department. And in the Film Library are recorded some of the great events of our time in a stock of film which would stretch from London, across the Atlantic to Newfoundland.

A man walks down a country road beside a valley
Heart of a Nation

Talks

BBC Television Talks is a department which has created its own character. A talks programme does not consist simply of putting a man in front of a camera to talk. It can be a series of zoo quests about animals and jungles; it can be a current affairs magazine like Panorama; it can be Orson Welles or Jacqueline Mackenzie. Under Talks you will find the men of politics and the men of learning; the archæologists discussing the latest finds and sparking off new interest in books and courses on archæology; bookmen and scientists and social historians; and just ordinary people of the world whose activities are part of our affairs. The BBC’s Royal Charter speaks of the value of broadcasting as a means to inform and educate as well as to entertain. All these three principles are to be found embraced in the talks programmes. And through these programmes some of our most distinguished experts have become as familiar to the home as the professional entertainer.

A woman and two men sample food from wooden bowls

Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Dr. Glyn Daniel have become television personalities in their own right. They have made archæology bright and interesting, whether through Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? or, as pictured here, through Buried Treasure. Both enjoy good food; but this was a little different. Sir Mortimer and Dr. Daniel taste an Iron Age gruel.

Panorama opens the Window on the world – and so does David Attenborough, in his Zoo Quests.

David Attenborough sits in a ten with two other men

The camera goes in for a close-up of Christopher Mayhew, M.P. We, the British – are we in Decline? That was the question posed by Mr. Mayhew in six programmes which ranged from Britain as a world power to our habits as a church-going nation.

Chris Mayhew sits on a desk with a globe in his left hand
Presenters site behind desks with maps of Scotland and London behind them
When the polls had closed after the 1955 General Election, the BBC Television Service swung into action with a minute-by-minute report – a combined operation by the News Division, the Outside Broadcast Department, and Talks. All through the night and the next day the television screen was alive with reports, results, interviews, and scenes from twenty different points in Britain.

Light Entertainment

At one time Light Entertainment followed the example of the music-hall. The act was the staple ingredient. But BBC Television developed its own forms of comedy. Now more and more shows are based on a single personality; it is around their particular talent that the show is moulded. It is Light Entertainment’s task to provide all types of humour, from slapstick to satire; but it has developed far beyond the variety-stage conception of entertainment. Now there are serials to be done; ‘spectaculars’ to produce; and new artists to be groomed to find those elusive laughs in the audience.

Shirley Eaton, Terry Scott (with script in hand) and Bill Maynard
Bill Maynard and Terry Scott are examples of the new age in Light Entertainment. They were newcomers who were given a chance on the television screen; and they took it – with the help of Miss Shirley Eaton – to become star names.
Actor playing actors and stage staff watch a man in a flat cap mop the floor
The scene: an alleged film set. The man in the flat cap: Dave King. The date: June 1955. By this time Mr. King had his own show. He was another of the young men who were groomed for television comedy. Today he is a top favourite, a man whose shows are a 'must' for millions.

Not all Light Entertainment is jokes and funny faces. Sometimes it comes from the gratification of a wish, as in Ask Pickles. You want to stroke a lion? Or dance with Victor Silvester? Or conduct an orchestra? Then – Ask Pickles.

A man in a tuxedo milks a cow
Dick Bentley sits in a chair at the back of a busy studio

For the first time millions of people saw the faces behind the radio voices. Dick Bentley was one of the BBC radio personalities who scored success on BBC Television.

A cast of eight cut a cake
In April 1954, the Grove Family took up residence – and their lives have been followed avidly ever since by eleven million viewers. In May 1956, they celebrated their 100th appearance on the screen with a cake surmounted by a replica of the Grove Family house.
The What's My Line panel, Eamonn Andrews and the contestant sit behind desks
The public knew what they liked – and high among their preferences in Light Entertainment were What's My Line? and Arthur Askey's Before your very Eyes. What's My Line? which began on 16 July 1951, was the panel game to beat them all. It introduced the viewer to a wide variety of occupations and celebrities. For the first time many people learned that a man could be employed as a sagger-maker's bottom knocker.
Leslie Mitchell in a doctor's chair with Arthur Askey looming over him with a book entitled "PLASTIC SURGERY FOR BEGINNERS"

Arthur Askey, seen here with Leslie Mitchell, appeared in two series of Before your very Eyes – in 1952 and 1955.

Do you like your humour sophisticated and a little dry? Then try Terry-Thomas. Viewers did in 1951 with How do you View? – the first real attempt to find a new formula for television comedy. By popular request, Mr. Terry-Thomas returned in January 1956, with Strictly T-T. Between those two series a new face had appeared and a new reputation had been born: both belonged to Benny Hill, the gay spark in a setting of glamour.

Terry-Thomas talks to his chauffeur, Peter Butterworth
Benny Hill sits on the edge of a carousel whilse surrounded by 8 girls in skimpy costumes

…and a galaxy of Stars

Ray Martin
Ted Ray
Charlie Chester
David Nixon

Ray Martin

Ted Ray

Charlie Chester

David Nixon

The Television Toppers, a female dancing group

The Television Toppers

Jill Day sings
Billy Cotton
Yana

Jill Day

Billy Cotton

Yana

Vic Oliver
Petula Clarke

Vic Oliver

Petula Clarke

Jack Payne
Ruby Murray
Max Wall
Harry Green

Jack Payne

Ruby Murray

Max Wall

Harry Green

Alma Cogan sings
Richard Hearne, as Mr Pastry, chews celery

Alma Cogan

Richard Hearne

Documentary

It is often said that all television is documentary because television reflects what we are doing and thinking and, perhaps, hoping. But in a direct sense, BBC Television produces two kinds of documentary: the dramatic document and the feature based on the facts of real life. In the past ten years viewers have seen many vital subjects dealt with in a documentary way, from the colour bar to foot-and-mouth disease. And they have given these programmes high praise. Documentary can combine studio, film, and outside broadcast facilities. By their very nature such programmes take a long time to prepare and mount. Behind them are weeks of writing and investigation. For a documentary must be accurate and, in the finished product, it must be telling.

Four boys stand in front of a panel of magistrates
One of the outstanding documentaries of the decade was The Course of Justice, which dealt with the way the courts of this country work. The series was first televised from Alexandra Palace in 1950, and then repeated in a new production from the Lime Grove studios. Here a London juvenile court is reconstructed in the Lime Grove studios.
Women in a maternity hospital with visitors

Documentary turns its attention to women – in the first instance to look at Women Alone and in the second to report on her work for the community.

The nurse (below) is in San Salvador; and her role was part of The World is Ours series of filmed documents, produced in co-operation with the United Nations.

A child is examined by a nurse as his mother stands over him

Music and Ballet

On the day that the BBC Television Service re-opened in 1946, Margot Fonteyn danced for the few viewers with receivers. Almost ten years later, in April 1956, Margot Fonteyn returned to the BBC Television screen – but this time to dance for millions. In the years between, viewers had seen many ballets, with the television camera capturing to the full the poetry of the ballet-dancer’s movements. And alongside the prima ballerinas were the great figures of music who came to the studios to play or to sing.

Somes balances a prostrate Fonteyn on his knee
Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in the television programme marking the tenth anniversary of Covent Garden's re-opening after the war.

Not all the ballet was classical. The Paris Opera Ballet took a contemporary theme – the colour bar – and performed a ballet to the music of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

– and there was Russian folk-dancing. The spectacular leap over the heads of the girl-dancers was a highlight of the programme presented by the Moscow State Folk-dance Company in November 1955.

Seven dancers watch an eighth perform
A young male Soviet dancer, his hands on his widely apart legs, soars over 14 other dancers who are holding hands in a line
A camera points at Menuhin

The television cameras take two views of the world famous violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, one of the great figures of music who have contributed to the success of Music for You.

Music and verse were combined in a programme in November 1954. The verse – a poem by Keats – was read by Claire Bloom.

Claire Bloom sits on a chair holding a book; a camera and boom microphone are in front of her, a grand piano is visible behind

Children’s Television

Children’s Television is as wide in range as television itself: to suit all ages, there are outside broadcasts, films, drama, comedy shows, music, features on how to do things. Children have laughed with Muffin the Mule. They have been thrilled by Hopalong Cassidy. They have learned the finer points of games. And they have had a personal link with the programmes themselves. For Children’s Television believes in encouraging the young to take a direct part in what they see. Children’s Television expanded to give attention to the very young in Watch with Mother and, for the older children, to inaugurate an International Newsreel.

Tom Fleming as Jesus, in a white robe standing in the desert
One of the outstanding events in the history of Children's Television was the telling of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Many of the scenes were filmed in the Holy Land.
A crowd of children watch a magician on an outdoor stage
Puppets Loobie Loo, Andy Pandy and Teddy

The gay colours of the BBC Children’s Caravan have been seen in many parts of Britain. The caravan was built to tour the country and, before an audience of children, to provide a stage from which clowns and other entertainers can put on special shows.

It is afternoon. Mother has just seen a television programme for women. Now comes Andy Pandy – the little boy who entertains other little boys and girls.

Children’s Television is not a stay-at-home. Bobby in France took young viewers across the English Channel to see the sights, to learn a little of the language – and to see what a French loaf looks like.

Ever since 1952 children have been watching The Appleyards, the oldest family in television – but the youngest in heart. Through the Appleyards children have had fun; and have learned about such things as first jobs.

Nick Edmett and Patricia Morton sit on their cases in front of a train
The six Appleyards look towards a BBC camera

Eurovision

August 1950. On to the television screens in Britain came something different – the first direct pictures from a foreign country. The country was France and BBC cameras were there to televise a Calais fête. The idea had been born of the linking of nations through television. Eighteen months later BBC Television went back to France for a direct relay from Paris. There two programmes convinced the television men on both sides of the Channel that an exchange of programmes could work. And so it was that the word Eurovision came into the language. In June and July of 1954 eight countries combined to present programmes to each other. Today international television is accepted as part of the BBC service.

A line of nine women and two men pop champagne bottles
Three men stand beside a camera on an outdoor gantry

Eight nations took part in the 1954 week of Eurovision. And the television announcers of those eight nations celebrated with champagne their first week of international television.

This is where the picture started. Peter Dimmock and Max Robertson inspect the camera positions for the Winter Olympics at Cortina, televised in January 1956. From this point the pictures passed over the Italian Alps. through Switzerland and Germany and so on to Britain. The time lag? Less than it takes to blink an eye.

Pope Pius XII reads from a script with two microphones and a camera in front of him
In 1954 viewers in Britain were transported to Rome for the first time. There they toured St. Peter's and the Vatican. And, as a climax to the visit, His Holiness the Pope spoke to the eight nations, each in its own language.
Grace Kelly and Rainier Grimaldi walk down a road as crowds cheer
Eurovision covered the news. The wedding of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace attracted hundreds of newspapermen and photographers. The television cameras were there, too, to bring the scenes to all BBC viewers.
➜ This is the EBU in 1962 from Transdiffusion
from TRANSDIFFUSION
1956 // THIS IS TRANSDIFFUSION