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.
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.
… and under the sea. In June 1956, after months of experiment, the BBC television cameras went down in a submarine.
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.
As the viewer saw Lady Barnett and her husband.
