Every home has at least one TV these days, but I wonder how many people know that 2nd November 1936 was the date the world’s first regular TV service was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), with only an estimated 100 TV owners tuned in. It’s not that long ago when you think about it, it’s only 80-odd years, not really that long ago at all.


John Logie Baird


We have this man to thank for TV - a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer and innovator, who demonstrated the world's first live working television system in January 1926 and ultimately went on to invent the first publicly demonstrated colour television system.

The first experimental television programme was aired on 22 August 1932. The BBC's involvement with John Logie Baird's broadcasts was an acknowledgement that the medium had a future and was also aimed to discover whether or not it was possible to make programmes that were entertaining beyond their novelty value. These experimental broadcasts came from studio BB in the basement of Broadcasting House. Baird - who now had the chance to advance his research - appeared on the first programme to thank the BBC, and said afterwards that the transmission was the best he had yet seen - but they were actually really awful by today’s standards, where TV clarity is so good you can see every pimple on someone’s skin, every feather of every bird and even hairs on a bear you could almost touch!

Televisions weren’t common before the Second World War, with only around 20,000 sets in Britain. The Marconiphone Model 709 was released around 1938, and then the following year, when war was declared, visual broadcasts were discontinued and TVs could only be used for their radios.


A place in every home


When they were first available, they were made from wood or Bakelite – a substance that could be moulded very quickly and had an enormous advantage in mass production processes where multiple units were being produced. By the 60’s, 75% of British homes had a television. As a result, leisure became increasingly centred around the home, with much free time spent in front of the TV. New models were designed to stand out, and as the television replaced the fireplace at the centre of the living room, designers started producing items to fit in with them - such as lower coffee tables that left a clear view of the screen!


TV in Portugal


Television in Portugal (RTP) was created in December 1955, built in 1956 and born in March 1957, being a major national phenomenon. Initially, people went to public places to admire the broadcasts from the ‘magic box’, as at the time few people had a television at home.

I remember being about 4 when my parents first got a TV, and I am told that I proudly stroked it and said ‘real wood’ (but I have no idea if it was or not). The husband remembers that when he was growing up in Ireland, his family were the first on the street to get one, and the neighbours would have a conga line outside to ask politely if they could come in to watch it. (I don’t know how long his mother put up with that).


Following the Television Act of 1954 which made commercial television in the UK possible, Independent Television (ITV) was introduced in 1955 as Channel 3 in the London area.

The BBC then launched BBC Two in April 1964. The debut evening was planned as an enticing showcase of the best of the new service but was ruined by a blackout caused by a fire at Battersea Power Station, and all that was broadcast was the news, which came from Alexandra Palace, the birthplace of TV.


How things have changed


Nowadays TVs are bigger and better and have more capabilities - not to mention NASA’s live transmissions in July 1969 from the Moon, using technology originally created by John Logie Baird himself. I wonder what he would have made of all this? Probably be ‘over the moon’ himself!

Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan