The BBC Television Service (1936-1960)
The BBC began its own regular television programming from Broadcasting House, London, on August 22, 1932. The studio moved to larger quarters in Portland Place, London, in February 1934, and continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line until September 11, 1935, by which time advances in all-electronic television systems made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete. After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August 1936, the BBC Television Service officially launched on November 2, 1936 from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London.
The first programme broadcast – and thus the first ever, on a dedicated TV channel – was "Opening of the BBC Television Service" at 3.00pm.
BBC television initially used two systems on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system. The use of both formats made the BBC's service the world's first regular high-definition television service. The two systems were to run on a trial basis for six months. However, the Baird system, which used a mechanical camera for filmed programming and Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming, proved too cumbersome and visually inferior, and ended with closedown (at 10.00pm) on February 13, 1937.
On September 1, 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning; the government was concerned that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft homing in on London. Also, many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the radar programme. The last programme transmitted was a Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Premier (1933), which was followed by test transmissions; this account refuted the popular memory according to which broadcasting was suspended before the end of the cartoon.
BBC Television returned on June 7 1946 at 3.00pm. Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, 'Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?'. The Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later. Alexandra Palace was the home base of the channel until the early 1950s when the majority of production moved into the newly acquired Lime Grove Studios.
When ITV was launched in 1955, the BBC Television Service (renamed "BBC tv" in 1960) showed popular programming, including comedies, drama, documentaries, game shows, and soap operas, covering a wide range of genres and regularly competed with ITV to become the channel with the highest ratings for that week.
Find out more at Wikipedia*
*20th Century Entertainment are not responsible for this website
