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BRITISH TELEVISION IN THE FIFTIES
As the decade started questions were being asked about the BBC's monopoly on television broadcasting. Clearly the medium was growing in popularity throughout all sections of society and it was already acknowledged that television would, in future, have a great influence on people's social habits. The BBC was already being accused of complacency in its choice of programming but with hindsight there seems little justification to back up this claim. True, commercial television was still five years away but even with a captive audience the corporation continued to expand and experiment, scoring success after success.
The 1950 Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race, held on the Thames since 1836 (becoming an annual event in 1839), was one of the biggest outside broadcasts the BBC had yet attempted. Rowed over a distance of 4 miles and 374 yards the race was as traditionally a part of British life as fish and chips. The BBC ploughed all their resources in covering the event every pull of the way. Some technology, such as microwave radio transmissions, portable radio links and a camera mounted in the bow of a launch that would follow the two competing boats, were developed especially for the event. 1950 also saw the first televised General Election Results and the BBC laid the roots for the next generation of viewers by introducing extensive children's programming.
On 2nd January 1950 Toad of Toad Hall, an adaptation by Michael Barry and starring Kenneth More, James Hayter, Sam Kydd, Patrick Troughton and Harry Secombe became the first show to be broadcast under the Children's Television banner, which would soon include Watch With Mother and its associated programmes.
Part of this slot also included (from 1952) the BBC's first soap opera, The Appleyards, which predated the first British adult soap (The Grove Family) by two years. Also with children firmly in mind, during May 1952 the corporation began experimenting with broadcasting educational programmes for schools. Although this was carried out as an evaluation process only (and broadcast to just six Middlesex based schools) it would eventually lead to the highly successful BBC Schools Television Service.
The summer of 1952 also saw the first broadcast between two countries when television programmes from France were shown on Paris Panorama. By now the number of licences issued stood at almost 2,200,000. But by far the first most significant television event of the 1950s was the broadcast of Queen Elizabeth ll's Coronation on 2nd June 1953. When it was announced that this historic occasion was to be televised, the weeks leading up to the Coronation saw the sales of televisions rocket, with an estimated 20 million viewers tuning in on the day to watch the young Queen crowned. For the first time a television news crew were flown from London to Canada where it was able to transmit the ceremony a few hours after it had taken place. In Britain the streets were deserted as stores and businesses closed to allow staff to go home and watch the ceremony on television. If television had been regarded up to now as nothing more than a gimmick or a luxury for a select few, then that perception was blown away in June. Indeed, it now came to the attention of many people within the expanding TV industry that with more sales of TV sets there would be more demand for longer broadcasting hours, and more variety of programmes.
Amid much heated debated the Government gave the go ahead for an independent broadcaster to work as a rival to the BBC. The ITA service, transmitting from its station at Norwood, was inaugurated on 22nd September 1955. The introduction of independent television would change everyone's viewing habits forever and ushered in a golden age for British television.
MOST POPULAR BRITISH TV SHOWS OF THE 1950s
And links to reviews
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM TELL
THE ADVENTURES OF TWIZZLE
THE APPLEYARDS
THE ARMY GAME
THE BILLY COTTON BAND SHOW
BLUE PETER
CRACKERJACK
DIXON OF DOCK GREEN
EMERGENCY-WARD 10
HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR
THE LARKINS
WATCH WITH MOTHER
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