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Yesterday's Witness: Breaking the Silence

on BBC Two England

A series which explores living memory

Wireless before the days of broadcasting
At the end of the last century the atmosphere began to be torn apart by man-made electrical disturbances. Wireless telegraphy had arrived.
During the next twenty years or so those first crude Morse signals developed into broadcasting as we know it today.
In tonight's film the early years are recalled by some of the people who helped 'break the silence' home experimenters, schoolboys, ships' wireless operators, pre-BBC broadcasters, engineers...
'We were regarded by the general public as magicians, something supernatural, and I think we rather revelled in that - it amused us,' says R.D. Bangay who joined the Marconi Company in 1903.
Also taking part: Kenneth Alford, Mrs. Winifred Collins, J.N. Cragg, Mrs. Gertrude Donisthorpe, Colonel A.K. Haslehurst, R.C. Patrick, E.A. Payne, John Scott-Taggart, Gilbert White, F.C. Ward

(Colour)

Contributors

Speaker:
R. D. Bangay
Speaker:
Kenneth Alford
Speaker:
Mrs. Winifred Collins
Speaker:
J. N. Cragg
Speaker:
Gertrude Donisthorpe
Speaker:
Colonel A. K. Haslehurst
Speaker:
R. C. Patrick
Speaker:
E. A. Payne
Speaker:
John Scott-Taggart
Speaker:
Gilbert White
Speaker:
F. C. Ward
Producer:
Stephen Peet
Director:
Michael Rabiger

BBC Two England

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