John Wyver writes: the evening of Thursday 9 February 1939 saw a 40-minute edition of Contrasts, which was a catch-all title for juxtapositions of variety artists from differing traditions. This was a particularly eclectic line-up featuring dancers from Java and more
John Wyver writes: the afternoon of Monday 7 February saw the first presentation of The Three Bears, an original short ballet for the screen by choreographer Joy Newton. This was not, as the News Chronicle claimed, 'the first ballet more
John Wyver writes: The evening of Sunday 5 February 1939 was taken up with a 105-minute version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with John Abbott as Prospero and actor, writer and poet Stephen Haggard as Ariel. Playing Caliban was more
John Wyver writes: 'Oho! Here's another television experiment,' is how Grace Wyndham Goldie began her review of Death at Newtownstewart, first broadcast on the afternoon of Friday 3 February 1939. The critic's top line response was that, 'it failed.' Nonetheless, more
John Wyver writes: another significant moment for the 'high definition' service from Alexandra Palace. Saturday 30 January 1937 was the last day on which the Baird system for producing and transmitting 240-line images was used. After this, AP relied more
John Wyver writes: A fortnight ago, one of the two mobile outside broadcast units took us to Watford Junction railway station for the first of a Sunday afternoon outing series titled Television Surveys. On Sunday 29 January, while its more
John Wyver writes: Let us return to table tennis on television. A week ago on this blog, we saw a studio demonstration on 22 January 1938. A year on, on Saturday 28 January 1939, we can travel with one more
John Wyver writes: the whole of the afternoon schedule on Monday 24 January 1938 was occupied by a presentation of act 2 of Richard Wagner's music drama Tristan and Isolde. In the evening this was played again, in perhaps more
John Wyver writes: First transmitted on the afternoon of Monday 23 January 1939, Rehearsal for a Drama is one of around a dozen plays that premiered on the Television service from Alexandra Palace. Written for the new medium, and set more
John Wyver writes: one part of Saturday primetime (not that there was such a concept yet) on 22 January 1938 was given over to a 13-minute Table Tennis Demonstration by the great Hungarian-British champion Victor Barna and four members more