As you will have noticed a few months ago the title of these posts changed because despite my best efforts, some of these posts have been leaning heavily on the contents of the BBC website anyway. But there's so much unheralded material on there. For some reason the BBC website still hasn't integrated the stuff in the BBC Archive section onto the iPlayer, which is understandable for clips, but there are whole programmes and discrete elements which would probably be relatively popular on the larger streaming service.
There's a page dedicated to the old Interludes for example, perhaps the most famous of which is the Potter's Wheel. Given the fashion for calming sounds and images, these short films certainly fit the bill for an iPlayer slot with their shots of waterfalls, windmills and beaches (perhaps less so the bonfire). The closest equivalent was the caption on HD BBC One filling in for the regional opt outs, but just last week they were finally phased out. Fortunately, YouTube has the goods from back in the Oneness era.
Colour Television Experiments
"When programmes were over at Alexandra Palace, a small group of pioneers took over the studios at night, trying to make colour television work."
[Alexandra Palace]
"The House of Commons is treated to a live demonstration of Colour Telelvision, thanks to the installation of some experimental new colour receiver sets. Colour television for the general public remains a long way off, according to Postmaster General, Ernest Marples. The test was telerecorded for posterity - in black and white, so you'll have to use your imagination."
[BBC Archive]
"Britain retained its 405 line TV standard after World War Two, while the rest of Europe and America adopted higher resolution systems. In 1953, the BBC experimented with field sequential color. When the NTSC color system was adopted in the U.S. in 1953, British manufacturers experimented with adopting it for the 405 line standard. Ultimately the BBC decided not to proceed with color using the 405 line standard, and finally adopted the PAL color system with the switch to a 625 line standard in the 1960s."
[Early Television Museum]
Archive
"Richard Dimbleby goes on a visit to Marlborough College in Wiltshire to take a look at how the Public School system works."
[BBC Rewind]
People
"James Moir celebrates Brian Matthew, a true icon of the airwaves, who began his broadcasting career in Germany and trained as an actor at RADA before joining the BBC in 1954."
[BBC Clips][BBC Programme Index]
"George (pictured above) joined the Met Office in 1939 as a met assistant with No 4 Bomber Group at FAF Yorkshire. From 1942 until 1953, he worked as an RAF forecaster in the UK, Normandy, Belguim, Holland and Germany. He was based at the London Weather Centre when he was selected to be the very first BBC TV forecaster, appearing on air from 11th January 1954 until March 1957, from the Lime Grove Studios."
[Showreel]
"I hAVE been asked to set down some thoughts on conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and I am happy and willing to do so since it allows listeners to go behind the scenes, into the studios, as it were, and see how things are done."
[Radio Times via Rediffusion]
Places
"Riverside Studios were (and in fact still are, in a new form) on the north bank of the Thames near Hammersmith bridge."
[TV Studio History]
"For the TV Mirror’s 13 February 1954 edition, Ken Jones paid a visit to the BBC’s Lime Grove and listened in on the conversations in the canteen, capturing a unique slice of television life in the genteel days before the BBC had competition. We reprint his article in full below, with the usual reminder that it is, in places, very much of its time."
[TV Mirror via Transdiffusion]
"The building of the first broadcast tower on Divis, military parading at Ballykinler, the removal of Belfast tram lines, potato and apple harvesting, Portavogie harbour construction work and Lord and Lady Brookeborough at home."
[BBC Rewind][BBC Programme Index]
Programmes
"The 20-minute bulletin was read by Richard Baker and was introduced as an "illustrated summary of the news ..."
[Liverpool Echo]
"From Thank You Ally Pally, A Television Party. Original transmission, BBC Television Service, Friday 19th March, 1954, 20:35 & 21:55."
[BBC Clips][BBC Programme Index]
"For many years, in addition to weather broadcasts, the BBC made its own programme dedicated to everything you wanted to know about the weather. It was called The Weather Show. In this edition, the 50th anniversary of TV weather is being celebrated."
[BBC Clips]
"Debuting in April 1954, The Grove Family was the first British television soap opera for adults. It was set in the north London suburb of Hendon and featured three generations of a successful builder’s family who took their name from the BBC’s Lime Grove studios."
[Nostalgia Central]
"One of my favourite television programmes has a bit of a problem, you know. It doesn’t actually exist any more. What’s more, it never really did, unless you happened to be watching it at the time."
[Dirty Feed]
"The study of television drama is complicated by the regular regurgitation of inaccurate accounts and misinformation about old programmes."
[British Television Drama]
Politics
"Early in 1953 the Corporation submitted to the Government a broad plan of development covering the ten years of the new Charter period. The plan was based on a careful study of the short-term and long-term factors which were likely to influence the development of public service broadcasting during that time. The Corporation's proposals were made in public in June, 1953."
[hathitrust]
"From 1928 until 1952 the BBC produced an annual publication, sometimes called a Handbook but more often a Year Book. Its purpose was to provide a record of the broadcasting year and to supply useful information about the BBC. The later Year Books contained articles about well-known broadcasting artists, designed for the listener and viewer primarily interested in the BBC's entertainment programmes, and were illustrated with numerous photo- graphs. The new Handbook has been planned on some- what different lines."
[World Radio History]
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