A History of the BBC in 100 Blog Posts: 1937.

You will have noticed over the past few weeks I've begun to include a section towards the bottom of these posts for "BBC Programmes".  As I was looking through the various external digital archives and the more obscure parts of the BBC website, I kept bumping into complete or near complete programmes which certainly aren't available through the iPlayer and I don't even know for sure if the BBC itself has copy.  

To offer examples of programmes broadcast in each year would seem to be as important as describing how they were made so here they are.  You'll notice I've modified the format slightly so that it reflects the Radio Times details which will make more sense as the weeks (years) pass-by.  The only other rule I'm following is that it has to be from an official or organisational source such as museum, archive or digital content agency (especially if its hosted on YouTube).

Television Update


"A survey of BBC television production during the first six months since its official launch in 1936. Introduced by Leslie Mitchell, Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell." 
[BBC Archive]

"The very earliest extant moving images of a work by Moore appear in a 1937 documentary titled BBC Television Demonstration Film. The BBC had begun a regular high definition television service from two studios at Alexandra Palace in north London in November 1936, and this documentary was a ‘survey of television production during the first six months of operation’, intended for viewing primarily by set manufacturers and engineers."
[Tate]

"This page contains examples of the various tuning signals and test cards used on BBC Television since the 1930s. The feature remains a work-in-progress and we’d be delighted to hear from anyone who has any additional information about any of the items covered here."
[Clean Feed]

"One of the myths about pre-war television is that it no longer exists. Before the advent of videotape in the 1950s, everything was live and therefore ephemeral – so the story goes."
[Sheldon Times]

"Henry Hall's final television show (bandleader) (pictured above)."

"Researching pre-war adaptations of specific theatre productions of Shakespeare, I was intrigued to discover a 1937 review of scenes from Macbeth with Laurence Olivier."
[Screen Plays]

"Fifty years ago this year, Westminster Abbey played host to a remarkable occasion, a memorial service for a mere journalist and broadcaster. The Abbey was packed. Hundreds of members of the public stood outside in the cold and wet to pay their respects to someone they saw as a trusted friend, Richard Dimbleby."
[BBC Sounds][BBC Programme Index]


The Monarchy


"King George VI speech to the Nation following his Coronation in 1937."

"The Coronation was the first major outside broadcast and the most elaborate and complicated ever undertaken by the BBC, even though the television cameras were not allowed into the Abbey.  This was the culmination of months of planning and organization by the Outside Broadcasts Department and the Engineering Division."
[Archive of Recorded Church Music]

This is the complete audio of the service, with contemporary commentary as released subsequently on 15 78rpm records.
[Klaus Dr. Amann]

This was the first use of the outside broadcast unit.
[BBC Clips]

"From its founding in 1937 to today, Mass-Observation has recorded people’s experiences, thoughts, and opinions of royal events."
[BBC Rewind]

"Steve Hocking is both a doctoral student at Oxford University researching broadcasting in the 1930s and a television producer working on BBC coverage of state occasions, including the Coronation of King Charles III."
[BBC Rewind]

Archive

First broadcast: Sun 18th Jul 1937, 20:00 on Regional Programme London
(Roman Catholic) from St. Edmund's College Chapel, Ware
[Archive of Recorded Church Music][BBC Programme Index]


Behind The Scenes


"The Governors of the British Broadcasting Corporation present here with their report for the year ending 3lst December 1937."
[hathitrust]

"This Handbook records the notable events and developments in the fifteenth year of the British Broadcasting service."
[World Radio History]

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