Blog

OTD in early British television: 23 March 1939

23rd March 2025

John Wyver writes: On Thursday 23rd March 1939 the 227th edition of the magazine series Picture Page was transmitted in the afternoon and, following the usual pattern, the 228th was shown that evening. In the afternoon, the show ran for just under 25 minutes; with an entirely different selection of guests in the evening it played for 36 minutes.

Joan Mitchell at the switchboard was the link between short interviews by Leslie Mitchell with a series of guests, a number of whom had brought props. There was no set, just a plain background, although sometimes guests sat at a table or, more often, walked around with the camera operator trying hard to keep them in focus.

The series was the single acknowledged ‘hit’ of pre-war transmissions from Alexandra Palace, in part because of the eclectic line-ups, which is what I want simply to celebrate today.

In the afternoon there were seven items featuring a total of eight guests, which means that each held the screen for a little over three minutes. The running order was as follows:

• Professor Saurat, President of the Institut Francais de Royaume Uni, describing the work of the institute, on the occasion of the new building.
• Kathleen Rishbeth, zoologist and photographer, demonstrating a few of the two thousand string figures (cat’s cradles to you and me) she has collected during her travels around the world.
• Aubrey Danvers-Walker, author of Heaven and Charing Cross, which was about to open at the St Martin’s Theatre.
• A.E. Filby, interviewed on the eve of his departure for a two year safari through Europe, India and Africa.
• Miss Erla Benedicksson, describing and playing three Icelandic folk songs, sung by Mrs Leveritt.
• R.B. Mitchell, on his appointment as warden of the Calf of Man, a small island south of the Isle of Man which was to be preserved by the National Trust as abird sanctuary.
• Marion Daniels, billed as ‘American acrobatic dancer from the Savoy Hotel’ performing to ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’.

Analysing the popular triumph of Picture Page in July 1939, Grace Wyndham Goldie described it as ‘a kind of high-speed television circus. There’s something of everything and nothing for long.’ She recognised that the intimacy of each exchange with Mitchell was essential to the programme’s particular quality as television, but she worried that

part of its success is due to its extreme superficiality, to its refusal to demand any kind of concentration, and to the fact that the standards by which it is ruled — and they are applied to Cabinet Ministers and performing elephants alike — are a mixture of news value and entertainment value.

What underscored its significance for Wyndham Goldie was that Picture Page was ‘one of the few topical programme series which reflect English life’, but rather than alter the series, which for her should remain as it was, she argued for more programmes that did a similar job but in a less superficial manner. 

The evening show on 23 Marchalso featured seven items with nine guests, so with the extended running time the pace would have been slightly less frenetic:

• Sir William Collins, KCVO, a member of the London County Council, with Mrs F Lowe, Chairman of the council at the time, on the jubilee celebrations of the LCC.
• Campbell Dodgson, art historian and curator, showing exhibits from the exhibition of French caricatures at the New Burlington Galleries (the French theme across afternoon and evening was in honour of the state visit of President Lebrun).
• Mrs Olga Collett, discussing her new part in the audio OB commentary from the Covent Garden gala performance.
• Madame Nadia Benois, designer of the sets and costumes for The Sleeping Princess, with M. Nicolai Sergueff, who was responsible for the revival by the Vic-Wells company.
• T.C. Dring, a member of one of the P&O Liner bands, who had been commissioned by the line to build scale models of all the ships in the fleet, showing two of his latest models.
• M. Francois de Tessau, ex-Under Secretary of the French Foeign Office and now a political journalist covering the state visit for French papers, recounting some personal reminiscences of President LeBrun.
• Arthur Peverett, an amateur puppeteers showing his ‘clown’ and ‘horse’ puppets.