80th Anniversary of BBC TV
 

Cross posted from Golborne Vintage forum: http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/fo...d.php?tid=5792
I rather doubt if you'll be able to watch this programme in the US or anywhere outside the UK except with the help of proxy servers.

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On 2nd November 1936 BBC TV went on the air for the first time*. The world's first regular high definition TV service. To mark this anniversary BBC4 will be showng a programme about the first day.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...ars-to-the-day
http://www.windfallfilms.com/show/68...-was-born.aspx
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...g-80-years-on/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocoF...ature=youtu.be

Several of us vintage TV types helped with the production, including Paul Marshall, John Thompson and myself. It wasn't my idea to use a TV22 - would have been rather better if they'd paid for moving my 702 to Hornsey Town Hall where most of the material was shot. In the trailer I caught a brief glimpse of Paul Marshall. None of me, so you may be spared the dubious pleasure of seeing me on the box again.

I was at Hornsey Town Hall for a couple of days in March to help with the filming. I was asked not to talk about the production in any detail but now there's a trailer and other public info I assume that no longer applies. Meeting and working wih Professor Danielle George was a great pleasure. She is a truly lovely person as well as a first rate engineer.

*There were test transmissions to RadiOlympia a few months earlier

Thanks for the post. I look forward to watching the program in November.

Viewing party at the Early Television Museum? We can find a way to stream this program I'm sure. It would be a crime not to watch it on a 1936 telly. I have a Marconi 702 at home, this makes me wish it was functional :sigh:.

Did anyone watch it on Nov 2nd ?

Reactions to the programme have been mixed. A lot of techie people like us have been very critical but lay reaction has been pretty good.

I appeared for about 15 seconds altogether.

On 2nd November there were a couple of events at Ally Pally. I took this photo of Lily (the 92 year old dancer who stole the show) and Iain Baird who also appeared in the programme. The TV is Marconiphone 702 belonging to a UK collector. It is one of the very few that has been restored to run on 240 lines as well as 405. It was bought a few years ago from the Bennett-Levy auction and has been meticulously restored by Mike Barker. Several transformers and chokes had to be rewound. The CRT is very good (much better than mine -I'm jealous) and it ran without a hitch for many hours.

The 702 shown in the programme was at the Vintage Wireless Museum in South London. It hasn't been restored but John "just give it full mains" Wakely turned it on and it worked. The Museum, Paul Marshall and many other didn't receive credits despite giveing a lot of time and effort for no payment.

Jeff,
Was that 702 in the picture running at 240? Although the picture is small the image looks very good. Nice brightness and contrast.

Darryl

No, it was 405. For some reason the pictures on a mirror lid set often look better on TV than in real life. No idea why. My 702, with its rather weak tube certainly looked better during my BBC interview a few years ago than in real life.