OTD in early British television: 1 March 1936
John Wyver writes: Sunday 1 March 1936 saw The Observer splash an exclusive interview with BBC director of television Gerald Cock (above, in his Alexandra Palace office) eight months ahead of the offical opening of the service. The article, bylined only ‘Our television correspondent’, is a fascinating glimpse of Cock’s sense of what television might be and could be, as well as being striking for the differences between aspirations and what eventually went to air.
At this point, Cock was envisaging that the service would begin in May (in fact, after test transmissions, it started on 2 November) with three transmission periods each day, for an hour each at 3pm, 6.15pm and 9.30pm. He also recognised that most people would initially watch television in dealers’ showrooms ‘and other public and semi-public places’.
During the first hour I want to appeal specially to women, catch them while they are shopping. The second hour will be designed for men and women together, after business hours, you see. The last hour will be the home hour.
By the autumn, costs and logistics, and especially the rehearsal demands on studio time at AP, had changed this plan to just two hours of broadcasts, at 3pm and 9pm.
Every item will be short. That, I think is essential. At first there will be no fixed times for special items; but later on, as we get out of the purely experimental stage, special subjects will have their own day of the week and their own time of day.
Cock’s big programme idea, which was never realised, was a series of 12 lessons in flying, followed by a similar course in horsemanship, then golf, tennis, cricket and football, ‘with the best exponents that can be obtained showing exactly how things should be done.’
Having overseen radio outside broadcasts for the best part of a decade, Cock envisaged that ‘actualities’, of the likes of the Derby finish and the Boat Race, would be central to the service, but almost certainly initially they would have to be shot on film.
Such things… depend on the use of a connecting link, either micro-wave transmitters, or the special television cable developed by the Post Office. It may be some time before the [electronic] television camera can be used to give flashes from all parts of a football field, for instance.
The journalist noted that Cock expected some television equivalent of a newsreel, filming events for later transmission, perhaps exploiting the operation of the intermediate film system. This recorded images on 17.5mm film and developed them almost instantly, so that they were ready for showing 54 seconds later — although the technology was desperately unreliable
As for the cinema,
Long films… will be terribly tiring to look at in the small screens of the cathode ray tube receivers, and they will not be used. But the big film will have its place in the programmes. Mr Cock hopes to use both film and dramatic criticism in a new way, a talk on the film or play illustrated by small scenes.
By the time the service began, the film industry had decided that television was a threat rather than a potential partner, and refused to permit trailers of current attractions to be broadcast.
Many other things lend themselves to this method of illustrated exposition. New cars, for instance, or domestic and other inventions. “This machine age,” said Mr Cock, thoughtfully, and left me to imagine all the possibilities.
Cock also envisaged “informative” items for the home, with entertainment shading into education imperceptibly. As the journalist parsed Cock’s vision:
The subject is an enormous one. The whole world is there to experiment upon. Travel, occupations, history, architecture, painting, sculpture. The best there is anywhere and everywhere. Talks illustrated by still and moving pictures, maps, plans, charts, diagrams — here at least there are no limitations.
But the executive was anxious not to give the wrong impression. “Of course the lighter side, pure entertainment, will predominate,” Cock stressed. At the same time, he could foresee that television might be a boon for schools — eventually.
The schools will have to wait until pictures at least a yard [that is, roughly a metre] wide can be projected. Mr Cock mentioned the necessit for a big picture several times, by the way, in the course of our talk. He felt that the small pictures, at present promised us, cramped him in many things he would like to do.
The article closes out with a kind of peroration:
The future! The possibilities are simply overwheleming. Television will be as great social force. It must be. But we have to get started before we talk of the future, the very big and, perhaps, rather distant future.
He wasn’t wrong.
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