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Site Map
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A brief history of the world's first television
service from its humble beginnings (Alexandra
Palace, North London, 1936) initially transmitting
using both the Baird 50 line and Marconi-EMI 405
line standards. A glance at the picture quality of
both services would reveal that one was the clear
winner...
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ITV: A (Very) Brief
History
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In the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1955 there
was effectively either one television channel or
nothing at all. Then came Independent Television,
which ended the BBC monopoly and introduced a new
and completely different style of television as
well as giving viewers a choice for the first
time.
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BBC2: A Choice of
Viewing
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Updated 20 May
1998
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Further choice arrived in 1964 with the arrival
of BBC2, which enabled the BBC to show both popular
programmes (on BBC1) as well as more specialist
programmes on the new channel. However the new
service got off to a shaky start since it required
a new receiver, as well as limited signal coverage
to begin with.
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Like BBC2, colour television was slow to become
popular initially. The early sets were poor
quality, expensive, huge contraptions that broke
down often, and (worse still) some early sets had a
nasty habit of catching fire. By the mid 1970's
these problems had been rectified and colour became
commonplace.
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Updated 26 April
1998
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These words (spoken by Paul Coia) introduced the
nation to Channel 4 in November 1982. Channel 4 was
different in the sense that unlike the other
channels it commissioned mainly small independent
production companies to produce the programmes. And
these companies were not afraid of taking risks
either !
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Updated 20 May
1998
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The nation had just got used to the concept of
Channel 4, when four months later breakfast
television came along. Modelled on the successful
'Good Morning America' format, TV-AM was given the
contract to provide a national breakfast time
television show for the entire ITV network.
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BBC Gardening: a (potted) history
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New !
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Programmes that featured flowers and plants
were produced almost from day one; the very first
week of programmes back in 1936 included one
featuring prize chrysanthemums. Even if you hate
gardening as much as we do, this walkthrough
provides interesting and relevant information.
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During one week in 1991, a quiz called QD: The
Master Game was shown on Channel 4. QD basically
took various elements of skill and bundled them
into one entertaining show spread over five
half-hour programmes that sadly did not materialise
into a further series.
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Updated 20 May
1998
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Various bits and pieces which don't readily fit
into the above categories can be found here, along
with a small selection of RealVideo clips. To view
these you may need to download a copy of RealPlayer
5.0. Also included are a selection of links
to other web sites which were found to be worth
visiting.
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