By 1959, viewing had usurped listening in the Radio Times, with television moving to the front of the schedules despite still only occupying a single channel. The programming still feels relatively experimental, still not sure who the audience is and what they'd like to watch. But the types of shows aren't all that different to the kinds of programmes which still appear on linear schedules, albeit across a range of BBC stations rather than just the one.
Let's look at an average day.
How about the 5th June 1959. The morning programmes begin at 10:20 with coverage of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Atlantic Congress which led to the founding of NATO attended by the Queen and Harold Macmillan in Parliament, the "scene in Westminster Hall described by Richard Dimbleby" which would be exactly the kind of programme run simultaneously across BBC One and News, narrated by Hugh Edwards perhaps and presented by Kirsty Young.
The rest of the daytime schedule is filled with a mix of sport coverage and children's programmes, Watch With Mother and "for the schools". They're perhaps the most optimistic additions to what we have now. Outside of large events, the likes of tennis and cricket have migrated to pay TV platforms and CBBC now has its own channel. Most impressive is a schools programme at 14:05, "Look at Films 6: The Western" part of a series
which across nine 25 min episodes provide a complete cinema course.
Into the evening, with Toddlers Truce cancelled, prime time begins at 6pm with twenty minutes of news followed by "Gardening Club" an early version of Gardener's World presented by Percy Thrower (pictured), with this episode covering Peonies and Astilbes. Then it's "Monday to Friday", "magazine programme with the accent on the lighter side of life" which seems to have only run for two weeks in that June and sounds like a precursor to The One Show.
After a news summary, there's an hour of entertainment beginning with the now lost comedy "Frankly Howerd" starring Frankie Howerd and "The Perry Como Show" with Perry Como, the scheduling for which must surely be a response to whatever was on ITV at the time. Curiously this is then followed by two documentaries which look like they'd later be on BBC Four, "Frontier: The Devil and Doc O'Hara" part of a series about the American West and "Adventure with Hans and Lotte Hass".
Then in roughly the modern drama slot at 9:30, "Hilda Lessways" an adaptation of a trilogy of period novels by Arnold Bennett which told the same story from three different perspectives starring Judi Dench and dramatised by Michael Voysey, the Andrew Davies of the period having also tackled Eliot, Gaskell, Collins, Austen and Dickens (the only TV adaptation of
Barnaby Rudge to date which came out in 1960).
After a news bulletin at 10pm (!), it's "Question Time", sorry, "Who Goes Home?" in which two MPs face a group of their constituents which in the simpler times of the two party system meant Douglas Nairn, M.P., Member (Conservative) for Central Ayrshire and William Ross, M.B.E., M.P., Member (Labour) for Kilmarnock being politely challenged in a tv studio in Glasgow in a discussion chaired by Robert Carvell, later of the Evening Standard.
The evening is capped off with another news summary but not before the only US import of the day, "Tales of Welles Fargo", a western in which a special agent becomes embroiled in cases which often feature real life figures, celebrity historicals if you will, and in this season 2 episode that means Johnny Ringo. Which is presumably the equivalent of knocking off an episode of Superman & Lois from the iPlayer just before bed.
Whicker's World
"Ahead of a centenary celebration of Alan Whicker at BFI Southbank, we dig into the personal files of the broadcaster whose old-school good manners and hugely popular TV programmes took viewers across the planet and into many remarkable encounters."
[BFI]
"Donated to the BFI by his partner Valerie Kleeman, these letters, passports and photos shed fascinating light on the career of pioneering travel TV presenter and investigative journalist Alan Whicker."
[BFI]
"Sandi Toksvig talks to Stephen Fry and Alan Whicker about their travels."
[BBC Sounds]
"Alan Whicker bounces around the set of 'You Only Live Twice' (1967) in this edition of 'Whicker's World', which takes him not only to Pinewood Studios but also to the film's exotic Japanese locations."
[BBC Archive]
Archive
"These meetings will be broadcast simultaneously by the BBC transmitters covering the Regions concerned. In London: Derek Hart. The impartial chairmen at meetings called by the BBC for members of the public to question politicians on the issues of the campaign. With them on the platform are candidates to speak on behalf of any party contesting a fifth of the seats in the region. Names of speakers will be announced after nominations have closed."
"An impression of life and opinion in the backstreets of a northern city in the morning from dawn till midday. Filmed in Liverpool, Stockport, Salford and Manchester."
[BBC Rewind]
"Tonight's programme includes: Carl Ebert at Glyndebourne. A great producer on his approach to opera, filmed during rehearsals for his production of 'Cosi fan Tutte' by Mozart. Introduced and edited by Huw Wheldon."
People
"The creator of much-loved children's TV classics including The Clangers, Bagpuss and Pogles' Wood is discussed by Matthew Sweet and his guests Daniel Postgate, who took over Smallfilms from his father, singer Sandra Kerr, who was the voice of Madeleine in Bagpuss, composer and author Neil Brand, and writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed."
Noggin The Nog's first transmission was 1959.
[BBC Sounds]
Places
"Television - the ogre that is said to keep citizens at home in the evenings - is the toast of a London public house opened Oct 13 for one of the nation's biggest brewery companies."
[Pathe]
"Filming begins at the newly converted BBC Wales television studios in Broadway, Cardiff, formerly Broadway Methodist Chapel."
[BBC Rewind]
"This pamphlet was published by the BBC Caribbean Service around 1959 when total migration to Britain from the Caribbean peaked. Originally a series of radio broadcasts, it was primarily written by Caribbean men who were already living in London – including the novelist Samuel Selvon."
[British Library]
Programmes
"June 6 marks the fifth anniversary of the first Eurovision exchange of television programmes between 16 television services in 12 European countries."
[Pathe]
Extensive website with details of each episode including television reviews, broadcasting errors and lists of the music covered.
[Juke Box Jury]
"Sue MacGregor brings together some of the original team behind The Navy Lark, one of the most popular and longest-running radio sitcoms. Participants include June Whitfield, Leslie Phillips, George Evans, Heather Chesen and Tenniel Evans."
[BBC Sounds]
Politics
"The general framework of the BBC's sound broadcasting programmes - Home Service, Light Programmes, Third Programme and Network Three - was maintained during the year, following changes that had been made in the year before."
[hathitrust]
"The object of this handbook, like that of its predecessors in past years, is to give the reader a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of what the BBC is what it does."
[World Radio History]
