Happy Birthday BBC One - 90 years old today!

Of course it wasn’t called BBC One back in the day, but…On 2nd November 1936, the BBC launched its new, high-definition (405-line) television service to a waiting public gathered around sets in department stores, train stations and hotels, or, very occasionally, in private homes. Television had existed on a primitive, mechanical, thirty-line basis between 1930 and 1935, but now the scene was set for something revolutionary. ‘From the Lens to the living room’ all-electronic television was now possible, with the technology being delivered primarily by Marconi-EMI. Here’s what those first television viewers saw:

[media=https://youtu.be/zVbhrckDrtc]

[Adele Dixon sings…clearly visible too, the first Emitron cameras]

Those early broadcasts were strictly limited to the London area - television would not spread to the Midlands until 1949..


The very earliest days of television were pretty much confined to the studio owing to the limited sensitivity of the first ‘Emitron’ electronic cameras which required sunshine or bright studio lighting. In addition there was the matter of a brief ‘format war’ between Marconi and a rival system produced by TV pioneer Baird. This latter involved shooting cine film, developing it immediately and then looping it in front of a mechanical disc device which scanned it at 240 lines, only then converting the signal to electrical impulses to be transmitted. This experiment, which involved dual standard receivers, didn’t last long, and by the summer of 1937, it was gone. The 405-line standard had prevailed.



Later on that year, though, there was yet another major innovation: Marconi-EMI improved the cameras to such an extent that they could be used - importantly for the UK - without any worries on dull days outside. In May 1937, first-generation Emitron cameras broadcast the coronation of King George VI, and they turned out to be up to the task but without much margin. But the arrival of the ‘Super Emitrons in late 1937 was a game-changer. Events such as the Lord Mayor’s Show and the Remembrance day ceremony at the Cenotaph were broadcast in November, and other notable events included the 1938 Derby as seen in this publicity material [Private collection]


One of EMI-Marconi's entry-level sets from 1938, the Marconiphone 707, £36.75 in 1938 (2026 equivalent: approx £2,250. Like many, it also incorporated a radio)

It goes almost without saying that if you are an early adopter of cutting edge technology, you pay a premium. So it was with early television - it was strictly a luxury, with even entry level sets with oscilloscope sized screens costing £30.50 - the equivalent of nearly £2,000 today. Needless to say, rental was an oft-used way of accessing TV for some decades after its launch.


(Further up the range: the Marconiphone 705. On larger models, the cathode ray tube was often mounted vertically owing to the technical limitations of the period. The image was viewed via a mirror mounted in the lid. This set was priced at £84 in 1938 (2026 equivalent: approx £5,100 )

British television shut down with the advent of hostilities in September 1939, by which time nearly 20,000 sets were in use in the London area, helped by more accessible sets being on the market by then. On its peacetime revival, it became a major cultural anchor with two-thirds of households having a set by 1959, the emergence of additional channels and colour in the following decade, and coming thereafter to define the leisure habits of generations. A quarter of the way into the new century, ‘traditional’ TV is not what it was; there are fewer ‘water-cooler moments’ these days, less shared culture; everybody has their preferences for Netflix, YouTube…or something else. Or maybe the screen remains silent and dark as you tap-tap-tap on a lap-top, recounting the days when television was not mainstream, nor even recent. But when it was new.

And the 405-line standard? The last broadcasts went out in 1985!