OTDs in early British television: Xmas reprise 1
John Wyver writes: for a month now, I have been writing more or less daily blog posts about pre-war British television, linking each one to a programme or event that took place on the same in one of the years between 1928 and 1938 (although we’ll get to 1939 soon).
These come from fragments of my research towards my forthcoming book, Magic Rays of Light: British Television between the Wars. For the next four holiday days, I thought we’d take a break and, for those who missed them, offer up the collected links again, this time in chronological order. On some of the posts I’ve also added additional information in the Comments.
• OTD in early British television: 15 December 1928: Saturday 15 December 1928, 96 years ago today, is a milestone date in the history of early television in Britain. Or at least it should be, since the day saw the transmission of the first television drama in Britain, a version of John Maddison Morton’s Box and Cox (above). The accolade of this ‘first’ is invariably given to the 1930 Baird Company/BBC transmission of Luigi Pirandello’s The Man with the Flower in his Mouth. Yet the medium’s long tradition of drama began with a demotic comedy, not a fragment of anguished modernism.
• OTD in early British television: 19 December 1928: Wednesday 19 December 1928 saw one of the earliest documented trasnmissions from the new studio (above, from Television, December 1928) of the Baird Television Development Corporation at 133 Long Acre in London’s Covent Garden. The Baird Concert Party offered ‘songs and patter’ from A.F. (‘Peter’) Birch, who is on the right in the photograph, and performances from baritone A. Calkin and comedian Reginald Shaw, with piano contributions from Constance (‘Connie’) King and Philip Hobson.
• OTD in early British television: 28 November 1931: on the afternoon of this day in 1931, Saturday 28 November, the National Programme of the BBC’s Sound service broadcast a light music recital in a studio at Savoy Hill given by the Gershom Parkington Quintet and tenor Trevor Watkins. The concert on the radio, via the Daventry transmitter, ran from 3.30pm to 4.45pm, but from the start until 4.06pm it was also broadcast by the Baird company’s 30-line television service.
• OTD in early British television: 30 November 1932: on this St Andrew’s Day in 1932, the 30-line Television service, which for the three months past had been operated by the BBC, presented an ambitious Scotland-themed variety show. Woolwich-born Helen McKay (real name: Ruby Ellen Northover) sang Scottish songs, as did renowned actually Scottish opera singer William Heughan, and Ernest MacPherson contributed violin solos including ‘Loch Lomond’. But I suspect the highlight was an appearance by Pipers of the Scots Guards, although it’s not entirely clear quite how many turned up.
• OTD in early British television: 5 December 1933: There are some surprising names among those who appeared on the 30-line Television service operated by the BBC between 1932 and 1935. Tuesday 5 December 1933 saw the first of two appearances by the then 28-year-old Agnes de Mille, the great American dancer and Broadway choreographer. On this occasion the PasB described her simply as ‘the character dancer’, and she shared a high end variety bill with soprano Vivian Lambelet (not the focus here, but the link will take you to a fascinating article by Christopher Reynolds) and Russian tenor Maxim Turganoff.
• OTD in early British television: 12 December 1936: the afternoon and evening of Saturday 12 December 1936, just six weeks into the BBC Television service from Alexandra Palace, witnessed a spectacular demonstration on the terrace just outside the studio. Celebrated First World War pilot and now producer Cecil Lewis had been charged with organising ‘local’ outside broadcasts. With the enthusiasm of a true believer, he arranged with the Territorial Army for the Battalion 61st (11th London) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, R.A., and the 36th Middlesex Anti-Aircraft, R.E., to be put through their paces.
• OTD in early British television: 14 December 1936: Nothing. No television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace on Monday 14 December 1936, and only an apologetic mid-evening sound announcement. A fierce gale had damaged the transmission mast and taken the service off-air.
Leave a Reply