![]() ![]() Despite only starting her TV career at the age of 40, she’d go on to become Head of Women’s Programmes at the BBC, then (as just mentioned) Head of Family Programmes, before moving to LWT to head up their Children’s, Religious and Adult Education Programming department. Stephens had been a hugely instrumental figure within 1960s television. The idea of including a pre-school series in the new channel’s schedules came from BBC2 Head of Programmes Michael Peacock, but the initial driving force behind the introduction of Play School was Head of Family Programmes Doreen Stephens. On – I think – turning four, in response being told that I’d been born at 11am on my day of birth, I sought confirmation that “I was in time to see that day’s Play School?” Talk about appointment to view television. And, personally speaking, the catalyst to one of my earliest distinct memories. ![]() For a good few generations of young televiewers, a programme that would provide an early introduction into a long fascination with TV. And, much like Channel Four’s Countdown, it would go on to a very long life on our screens. Most British channel launch ever, 10/10, no notes.Īnd so, as I’m sure you’re already well aware, the first actual programme broadcast on BBC-2 was something commissioned for an audience of under-fives. That was followed by an evening of captions and apologies. Nothing could possibly go wrong.Īs fate would transpire, due to a huge fire at Battersea Power Station a mere half-hour before the channel went live, those plans were thrown into candle-lit disarray, and an expectant audience was instead treated to an (initially mute) news bulletin beamed from the nearby but unaffected news studio at Alexandra Palace, as read by Gerald Priestland. Following a brief introduction to the channel, there was the promise of new comedy show The Alberts (featuring, as the RT listing had it, “ Ivor Cutler of Y’hup, O.M.P, Professor Bruce Lacey, John Snagge, Sheree Winton, Benito Mussolini, Major John Glenn, Adolf Hitler, David Jacobs, Birma the Elephant (by courtesy of Billy Smart’s Circus) and other celebrities“), followed by a production of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate. ITV, of course, had ‘ Inaugural Ceremony at Guildhall‘, which can’t have been that good as it didn’t go on to get a full series.Īs the BBC’s first new channel since the launch of the Television Service in 1936, 1964’s plans for BBC-2’s launch night were as fancy as you might expect. Channel Five had the first episode of Family Affairs, which I needed to look up. Channel Four had the first episode of Countdown, which everyone remembers. When launching a television channel, it’s generally a good idea to pick something really good and important to kick things off. It’s time to look through the oblong window at:Ģ. Apologies to anyone getting this via email – it’s a long one. Hey ho.īut enough of me explaining why Genome ate my homework, let’s take a look at the programme in second place on the list. Then I discovered repeats of The Programme At Number One spent three months going out billed as “NEWS followed by… ”, which increased the gap by a load. After all this time, could it come down to a single figure difference? Or even actually end in a draw? And then, on checking the other programme left to uncover, it looks like several broadcasts couldn’t be counted (due to actually being an unrelated film of the same name). How close did it come to the top? Well, on my initial recheck, if it had been shown just 26 more times, it would be top of the all-time chart. So much so, there was a very real chance this next programme might actually have topped the list. And so, as we’re talking about a programme broadcast more than 10,000 times, it took a lot of checking to see what hadn’t been picked up. On checking through everything, one programme had a large number of broadcasts missing from the database due to being buried under “Children’s BBC starting with…” billings, with the programme title itself in the RT ‘description’. Not so much as down to getting together a programme history of the show in question, but more to do with checking the broadcast histories of the Top Two programmes. If this blog has a catchphrase, it must be “that took a lot longer than I’d expected”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |