The Beginning of Television Alexandra Palace 1936-39
Before 1936 there were no viewers, no television sets. and no studios. BBC meant radio until, on 2 November that year, the first television broadcast took place from an old amusement centre named Alexandra Palace in a suburb ten miles from the centre of London. Yesterday Ally Pally, the world's first studio, closed down. This programme is dedicated to those producers, engineers and performers who, in the years leading up to the war, created the ground rules of television. They offered cabaret, magazine programmes, Walt Disney cartoons, variety shows, ballet, opera and plays, using top stars of the time from Margot Fonteyn to Sophie Tucker. Outside broadcasts started with the complexity of King George VI's coronation and covered everything from the Centre Court at Wimbledon to On Your Farm and Chamberlain's return from Munich. The story is told by the pioneers themselves. It is illustrated with extracts from films made about television at the time because, unlike modern TV, there was no recording. Everything had to be right on the night....
Film editor JOHN HOUSE Director MICHAEL COCKER Producer DAVID NELSON