First day of BBC television

File:Alexandra palace plaque.jpg at Alexandra Palace ]]

The British Broadcasting Corporation, already an established radio broadcaster since the mid-1920s,{{Cite web |date=15 June 2020 |title=100 years of radio since Marconi's big breakthrough |url=https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/100-years-of-radio |access-date=17 November 2020 |website=Ofcom}}{{Cite web |last=Linfoot |first=Matthew |title=History of the BBC: The origins of BBC Local Radio |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/research/local-radio |access-date=18 September 2022 |website=bbc.com}} began making experimental television broadcasts in 1929.{{Cite web |title=History of the BBC: 1920s |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/timelines/1920s |access-date=18 September 2022 |website=bbc.com |language=en}} Low definition (30-line) television transmissions under government license commenced in August 1936.{{Cite web |title=A new service: 1935-36 |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/a-new-service/ |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}

The BBC Television Service officially launched on 2 November 1936.{{Cite news |date=30 October 193 |title=Variety |page=88 |work=The Radio Times |issue=683 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/68aba19c259d4c37ae285afae2798390 |access-date=7 June 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Opening Night: November 1936 |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/opening-night/ |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}} This is often described as the world's first regular high definition television service.{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=R. W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZcwhVyiMqsC&pg=PA576 |title=Television: An International History of the Formative Years |date=1998 |publisher=IET |isbn=978-0-85296-914-4 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=R. W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7v7FTnT1wE4C&pg=PR9 |title=British Television: The Formative Years |date=1986 |publisher=IET |isbn=978-0-86341-079-6 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Newcomb |first=Horace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NUXIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA322 |title=Encyclopedia of Television |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-19472-7 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The History of Television (or, How Did This Get So Big?) |url=https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~pjs54/Teaching/AutomaticLifestyle-S02/Projects/Vlku/history.html |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=www.cs.cornell.edu}}{{Refn|The first regular electronic television service in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, as Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk. Broadcasting from the Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow, it used a 180-line system, and was on air for 90 minutes, three times a week.|group=nb}} Programming included short ad-hoc performances by musicians, with the duration limited as "lookers in" (as viewers were called) were found to experience eye strain through looking at the small screens then in use.{{Cite AV media |title=Television's Opening Night: How the Box Was Born |type=Documentary |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0817s4g |access-date=7 June 2020 |publisher=BBC Four |date=19 May 2020}}{{cite web |author=laurence marcus |title=THE HISTORY OF THE BBC: THE FIRST TV ERA |url=http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvera.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813233820/http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvera.htm |archive-date=August 13, 2011 |access-date=December 11, 2015}}

The BBC's official publication, The Radio Times, listed the opening one-hour schedule – the first ever, on a dedicated TV channel – starting at 3 pm, as:

• 3:00 – Opening of the BBC Television Service
• 3:15 – Interval; time, weather
• 3:20 – British Movietone News
• 3:30 – Variety
• 4:00 – Close

From 9 pm to 10 pm, pre-recorded films and more news were screened. The films included Television Comes to London, a pre-made fifteen-minute documentary about the launch, shot on 35mm film. It was the BBC's first television documentary.

The first person heard and seen was the announcer, Leslie Mitchell.

According to advance publicity in The Radio Times, the opening was then to be:{{Cite news |issue=683 |pages=88 |title=Variety |work=The Radio Times |access-date=7 June 2020 |date=30 October 1936 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/68aba19c259d4c37ae285afae2798390}}

{{quote|by Major the Right Hon. G.C. Tryon, M.P., H.M. Postmaster-General {{pb}}Mr. R.C. Norman (Chairman of the BBC) and the Right Hon. the Lord Selsdon, K.B.E. (Chairman of the Television Advisory Committee) will also speak.}}

The Radio Times billed the Variety performers as:

• Adele Dixon – Musical Comedy Star
• Buck and Bubbles – Comedians and Dancers
• The Lai Founs – Chinese Jugglers

however, in the event The Lai Founs did not appear.

Dixon performed a specially commissioned song, "Television", written by James Dyrenforth and Kenneth Leslie-Smith. The event made Buck and Bubbles (Buck Washington and John W. Bubbles) the first black people to appear on television.

The musicians were billed as The BBC Television Orchestra, led by Boris Pecker and conducted by Hyam Greenbaum. The producer was listed as Dallas Bower.

The broadcast was made from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace ("Ally Pally") in London, using the 240-line Baird intermediate film system, on the VHF band.

BBC television initially used two systems on alternate weeks: the Baird system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system. The decision to use the Baird system for the first week was made on a coin toss. The use of the two formats made the BBC's service the world's first regular high-definition television service; it broadcast from Monday to Saturday between 15:00 and 16:00, and 21:00 and 22:00.{{cite book|first=R.W.|last=Burns|title=Television: An International History of the Formative Years|location=London|publisher=The Institution of Electrical Engineers|year=1998|page=ix|isbn=978-0-85296-914-4}}

Alexandra Palace housed two studios (one for each system), various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and the transmitter itself.

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

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• [https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/november/first-regular-television-service First regular hi-definition television service] – BBC page.

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Category:History of television in the United Kingdom

Category:November 1936 in the United Kingdom

Category:1936 in television

Category:1936 in London

Category:BBC Television