BBC Television startup from 1956
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2024
- From the archives of www.transdiffus...
This is a complete BBC Television Service startup from early 1956 including the Games symbol. The tuning signal was briefly modified, as shown, to include 'wings'. The music over the tuning signal is Jack Byfield's 'National Airs', although Coates's 'Television March' was also used extensively during this period.
For more information on this startup, read the Transdiffusion article "Oh, That Symbol..." at www.transdiffus...
This is a genuine start up film saved by Arthur Dungate who worked for the BBC in the 50s.
What an absolute gem. I am very grateful. Long before I was even born but I feel I would have been right at home in this era.
We had a drink with Arthur about ten years ago, before his health failed. One of the most fascinating men we've ever met, full of wonderful stories of how he and his colleagues made great television with little more than string, tin cans and determination.
An extremely belated thank you for sharing this wonderful piece. How brilliant that it has been preserved. I've been skimming through BBC Genome listings recently, its amazing how much has changed. Pages From Ceefax was the norm at times, giving suitable pauses during the day and making the viewer perhaps more grateful for the programmes later, instead of being bombarded as we are with a zillion channels all repeating themselves. Going back even further, its so easy to forget to someone my age about the "toddlers truce" and regulations which had just as big as say on television being run as BBC/ITV. The comment about the Mail readers being adverse to the BBC shows nothing has changed in that regard 😁
Thanks to Arthur for saving this wonderful piece.
Thanks to Arthur for saving this wonderful piece.Although having not heard this musical arrangement for well over 50 years, it was as familiar as ever,I knew exactly what was coming ! I believe the work of arranger/ composer Fred Hartley.Would have sworn the testcard was the' 5 o'clock ' clock though.Always turned the TV on early to hear this !.Many thanks for the upload.
One thing I find fascinating about the ' National Airs' is how similar the choice of tunes is to that which Fritz Spiegel came up with in 1978 for the Radio 4 UK theme...
The harp music was played live to the original recording of the mechanical ident (which collapsed soon afterwards!) and thus the ident visuals unusually inspired the music directly. We'll put a link to an appropriate article in the description now (or Google 'transdiffusion oh that symbol')
This reminds me of Fritz Spiegls "Radio Four UK theme broadcast at the start of the day on BBC Radio 4 for some 25 years before it was axed. The music begins with " Early One Morning" followed by segments representing ,England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland. It's axing led to much protest, especially from Mr Spiegls widow.
Yes, it was good music . But not multicultural enough for today's. Cannot upset anyone BBC.
Wonderful, I would have been 7 years old then but I remember it so well. Thank you so much for uploading it.
This is lovely.
And the viewers of this startup were readers of the Telegraph and the Times. The readers of the Mail and the Express were assaulted with how terrible television was but didn't view themselves for another year or so (by which time their newspapers were inviting them to watch the filth and depravity on display in order to deplore it). Both newspapers were banging on about Empire a decade after it had gone.
The Mail and the Express still have the desire to aspire to the days of Empire and British Exceptionalism.
@Transdiffusion I disagree that the bats wings were terrifying but I do love how the wings illuminate to the sound of that beautiful harp music.
I love the batwings ident.
It's such a lovely, relaxing way to start the televiewing day: some folk songs, the world's MOST TERRIFYING IDENT, some gentle harp music and then, most probably, "programmes for women at home".
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I think the last pre-PBS NET ident is far creepier than this.
I now understand that this beautiful musical arrangement was called ' National Ayres ' by composer and pianist, Jack Byfield, who I seem to recall was with the Max Jaffa trio, on radio programmes in the 60s- early 70s.Always recall turning the TV on early before ' Childrens Television ' at 5.00p.m to hear this lovely piece of music.
I was going to ask if anyone actually turned on their TVs at the time and sat and actually looked at this for minutes - but then I remembered watching what was called the "test pattern" in the USA in the mornings in the early 1960s before any programs started, so I guess people really did do that in Britain too.
Back then when the Welsh Children's Television from the 60s and 1974 are look like the 50s TV. Ar Lin Mam (Lili Lon) is the first one that aired during 1959 to 1975.
It actually replaced by Pili Pala and Ffalabalam during the late 70s and early 80s.
Very nostalgic! BBC should set their historical channel.
Sort of makes me feel like I'm alive in the 1950s (I never was. I was born in 2003, in fact!)
1993 here, same feeling.
@@OtroCanaldeMisterios Same applies for me, who was born in 2005.
When did BBC TV start the day in 1956? I remember watching start ups on American TV c.1980 before 6 and 7am- test cards, easy listening, recording of the FCC license, sometimes headlines and weather. New York may have had 24 hour TV but the premise in New England is that you will go to bed at a reasonable hour. Most radio closed down too.
They also had the toddlers truce between 6pm and 7pm which was to tell that children's programming had ceased for the day and to put them to bed
I'm incredibly late to this but today's date (April 9th) in 1956 was this:
15:00 Mainly For Women
15:45 Picture Book
16:00 Sign Off
17:00 Children's Programmes
19:00 The News & Sports
19:30 Fabian Of Scotland Yard
20:00 What's My Line?
20:30 Panorama
21:15 Off The Record
22:00 Late News
22:15 Come Dancing
I assume closedown was at around 22:45 or 23:00
In the 1950's, BBC TV would have started around the mid to late afternoon. In the 1960's, programmes for schools started, so television would have started around 9.30 or 10.00am, but the channel would close down throughout the morning, so there would be no continuous television until 3 or 4pm. Even in 1980 in Britain, BBC 1 would start at 9am with programmes for schools and colleges until midday, then they would closedown until 12.45pm with news and weather, followed by the daytime programme Pebble Mill at One, then a children's programme at 1.45pm, then an hour of schools and colleges programmes until 3pm where they would close down until 3.55pm with programmes for children until 5.40pm, then normal programming until closedown around 11.30pm to Midnight. On BBC 2, there would only be one programme at 11am called Play School for infants, then they would close down until 5 or 6pm with programmes until around 11.30pm. On ITV, programmes started at 9.30am with 2 and a half hours of schools and colleges programmes until midday, then they would have daytime programmes and broadcast right thru to about Midnight or 12.30am. There was no cable television in 1980 (not in the sense of having extra channels) and Channel 4 didn't exist until November 1982.
In Ireland in 1980, there was only two channels, RTE 1 and RTE 2. RTE 1 wouldn't start until 4pm (there would be one or two schools programmes between 10.30am and 4pm). RTE 2 only started at around 7pm.
@@europa2000man You are right , this particular piece was played daily before the start of BBC ' Children's Television ' at 5.00p.m till 6.00p.m although it was accompanied by the working ' test-card clock ' , moving towards 5.00.It is a shame the glorious ' National Airs ' has been largely forgotten , but saved here on this short piece of tele-cine through the foresight of an individual.Even as a youngster , it had remained indelibly vivid in my mind.There seems little doubt that Fritz Speigl cribbed many aspects of it for the ' UK Theme ' starting off Radio 4 for many years , axed in 2005 to make the news ' more pacey ' but apparently about to be reinstated !.
It depends. If you mean we would lose the pointless war we started in Egypt, no. If you mean the PM would be overthrown in a palace coup, no. If you mean that either event would impact on the completely upper middle class viewers of the time? Yes. But they knew Empire was over. They just didn't expect the end to be so dramatic. And even then the on-going scuttle was easy for them to cope with. You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
Indeed. What seems like Proper History in retrospect often doesn't seem so at the time.
I did mean the first two things, mainly - I suspect much of the BBC's audience at the time was living in some sort of denial, knowing that the Empire was dead but preferring not to think about it unless they absolutely had to - but I was also thinking of the first knockings of a fundamental change in mass culture, of the revenge of America's twin underclasses.
I would say it was the emergence of a new middle class that took place.
One of the main impressions I get from something like this is: could most of the people watching it have believed what would have happened to Britain by the end of the year?
BBC Television Service started TV in the UK 10 years after the British Broadcasting Company became the British Broadcasting Corporation. thank you to the people who corrected me.
It actually started in 1936.
The British Broadcasting Company, as it was originally known, started in 1922 & became the Corporation four years later. Regular HD TV transmissions (405 lines) started in 1936, from Alexandra Palace but were suspended when war broke out. Programmes restarted in 1946.
Eventually I found out that this "Fantasia on National Airs" is arranged by Max Saunders and published by Josef Weinberger...
How was this recorded, was it from a documentary
it's quite a restful start-up
Yes, I would have suspected that the broadsheet readers would have had a greater awareness of the world around them and the shifting forces of power. William Haley's post-Coronation Times editorial is interesting - basically that Britain was pretty exhausted and 'New Elizabethanism' was a delusion, though less blatant in its phraseology than that, as it probably had to be.
All roads in modern history seem to lead back to 1956, though, even things like containerisation and supermarkets.
The BBC in those days so they tell me commissioned much orchestral music . Not like today.
Oh, and it all runs slow, as the end is very obviously in G major (you can hear the open violin strings on the penultimate note) yet it's sounding F sharp major - that would never be the done thing in the 1950s!
One thing I find fascinating about the ' National Airs' is how similar the choice of tunes is to that which Fritz Spiegel came up with in 1978 for the Radio 4 UK theme...