At 11.02 p.m. on Monday, 22 August 1932, the first programme of the BBC's 30-line television service went on the air. Lasting for only 35 minutes, the programme began with Roger Eckersley, the BBC's Director of Programmes, who welcomed viewers and introduced John Logie Baird. Baird thanked the BBC and said a few words of welcome (prepared for him by the BBC) before a number of musical acts performed for the audience. These included Betty Astell, Betty Bolton and Fred Douglas, who were to appear regularly on the 30-line television service. The response in the press was positive, with several papers commenting on the clarity of the picture and the artistes being recognisable (the implication being that this had not been the case previously). The BBC permitted a representative of Television to attend the first night and a report appeared in the August 1932 edition of the journal. Interestingly, the representative referred to the difficulty he felt the performers had of acting in front of the camera with no immediate audience response, coming as they had from theatre variety backgrounds. He also noted that the songs and sketches were chosen to suit the small screen.

It was noted that a clear image was received on receiving sets in London, and while facial detail was absent in the dancing, ‘the interpretation of the dance tune as expressed by the rhythm of the body movement could be followed and appreciated’. Good reception was also noted by the journal correspondents in Newcastle upon Tyne also, and in Crieff, Perthshire, 400 miles from London.

Programmes

There is no doubt that the quality of programmes – in terms of the content but, more importantly, the visual experience of watching – improved between 1929 and 1935. The technical issue of the available bandwidth on the medium wave bedevilled the earlier programmes. As G. V. Dowding, editor of the Book of Practical Television, wrote in 1935, the technical issues were ‘always the underlying limit to artistic expression’. The early programmes produced by the Baird Television Company had been basic and fairly static (in terms of movement), on the whole, in terms of what appeared on screen. That said, the early producers had been experimenting in form and content to see what might – and might not – work on screen. For example, sketches involving two or more people were produced in December 1930 together with a ballet-dancing demonstration.