Swalwell

TV Programme Developments

BBC television shows of the 'fifties were The Lone Ranger, The Range Rider and The Cisco Kid from the USA, All Your Own (a magazine programme featuring children with a particular talent or hobby, introduced by Huw Wheldon) and Armand and Michaela Denis's wildlife programmes, all for children. The Appleyards was a children's serial, the title referring to a family of that name. Blue Peter and Crackerjack came later.

For the adults there was Fabian Of The Yard with Bruce Seton, Quatermass with Andre Morell (a science fiction serial), What's My Line chaired by Eamonn Andrews with four panellists trying to determine the contestant's occupation, Stranger Than Fiction (curiosities from around Britain, shown every Sunday evening), Tall Story Club (in which each of four celebrities told a story and the others had to decide whether it was true) and They Come By Appointment, a drama about a psychiatrist and his case book.

The Grove Family was the first BBC television soap, about a family living in London (naturally) and dated from the fifties. Other early soaps were Compact and The Newcomers, all in the late fifties or early sixties. Barry Bucknell had his do-it-yourself show and Percy Thrower was the TV gardener. Current affairs were covered by Panorama, as now, and from 1958 the arts were covered by Monitor, (Huw Wheldon again), introduced by Swedish composer Dag Wiren's catchy music, Serenade For Strings. John Freeman's 'in depth' interviews in Face to Face were something new, as was University Challenge with Bamber Gascoigne. The news was read from Alexandra Palace, and Sylvia Peters and MacDonald Hobley were two well known announcers. The news barely lasted ten minutes and there was little in the way of filmed coverage or any reporting in the fifties.
Sport was covered weekly in Sportsview introduced by Peter Dimmock. Outside Broadcasts became increasingly common, especially in sport, the 1955 Cup Final between Newcastle United and Manchester City was a highlight. American series included The Phil Silvers Show (Bilko), The Burns and Allen Show, I Married Joan, Amos 'n' Andy and Hey, Jeannie, all from the 'fifties. The magazine programme

Tonight first screened in 1957 and ran for many years with such stalwarts as Cliff Michelmore, Geoffrey Johnson-Smith, Julian Pettifer, Derek Hart, Polly Elwes and Kenneth Allsop and with reporters Alan Whicker, Fyfe Robertson,see picture, and Trevor Philpott not to mention Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor who together with Ewan McColl sang topical songs.

Few films were shown then, as Hollywood and the British film industry considered television to be a huge threat and would not allow many of their pictures to be aired, but later the US studios began to produce their own shows for television and, eventually realising that they had to co-exist with TV, released large batches of old films for transmission, as did the British studios. There may also have been a reluctance at the higher levels of the BBC that they didn't want their TV service to become a medium for showing films.

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Picture Parade kept us up to date with the new releases and was introduced on TV by Peter Haigh with a signature tune by Jack Beaver (1900-1963) reminiscent of the big orchestral film scores of that period. A big drawback until the advent of colour television, was that all pictures made in colour appeared in black and white on TV. By the late 'fifties programmes were starting earlier in the day and there were no gaps in the evening schedules. The former 6 PM to 7 PM gap was known as the 'toddler's truce', when parents could put their young children to bed and it ended in 1956.

Schools broadcasts appeared, and outside broadcasts other than for sporting events were increasingly common. Filming was expensive and so most programmes, even plays, were done live in the studio, and there were occasional disasters such as scenery falling over or embarrassingly, actors fluffing or even completely forgetting their lines and you could sometimes hear the prompter in the background. What was remarkable about the live broadcasts was how often everything went right. Plays had intervals and towards the end of the interval a bell would ring to warn viewers to resume their seats. Live programmes, usually from the Lime Grove studios, gave way to telerecordings, a system preceding video.

The BBC moved to new White City studios in the early sixties and both TV and radio became more professional and slicker, and technical improvements both at the studio and in the television sets at home meant that the fairly frequent breakdowns or fiddling with the set to get the picture to keep steady, became a thing of the past. In the sixties television (and radio) began to change with more daytime TV programmes, bigger budgets and the 'golden age' of popular programmes arrived with almost every home having a TV set.

The documentary arrived in a big way and investigative programmes together with factual dramas like Cathy Come Home which examined social problems, had an impact beyond the television screen. Satire in the form of That Was The Week That Was began to break down the barriers of what was acceptable to broadcast and censorship was relaxed. Radio began to be more a medium for listening to news, sport and music rather than comedy, drama and documentary and the transistor brought us mobile radios and for some, car radios.

Because of television and changing social habits stemming from a wider choice of available entertainnment, visiting the cinema was no longer a twice weekly experience and filmgoers became more selective in what they went to see, but with Ben Hur, West Side Story, The Sound Of Music, Dr Zhivago, Lawrence Of Arabia, Spartacus and other such films attracting big audiences. Television was something affecting the lives of all and a whole new generation was growing up under its influence like no generation had before it.