BBC One

History

The station was originally based in a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London, housing two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms and so forth, and even the transmitter itself. The earliest television broadcasts used the 210-line Baird system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system on alternate weeks. However, the Baird system proved too cumbersome and by early 1937 had been dropped.

Related Topics:
Alexandra Palace - 1937

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On September 1, 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was unceremoniously taken off air at 12:10pm after the broadcast of the Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Première. The last words broadcast were of a caricature of Greta Garbo saying "Ah tank ah kiss you now". It was feared that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft homing in on London. Also, many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the RADAR programme. BBC television returned on June 7, 1946 at 3pm. Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement saying "Remember me?" Remarkably, programmes restarted with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939, introduced with the announcement: "As we were saying before we were so rudely interrupted..."

Related Topics:
September 1 - 1939 - Germany - Mickey Mouse - Greta Garbo - London - RADAR - June 7 - 1946 - Jasmine Bligh

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Initially, the station's range was officially only within a twenty-five mile radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter—in practice, however, transmissions could be picked up a good deal further away, and on one occasion in 1938 were picked up by engineers at RCA in New York, who were experimenting with a British television set. They filmed the static-ridden output they saw on their screen, and this poor-quality, mute film footage is the only surviving record of 1930s British television filmed directly from the screen. However, some images of programmes do survive in newsreels, which also contain some footage shot in studios while programmes were being made, giving a feel for what was being done, albeit without directly replicating what was being shown on screen.

Related Topics:
1938 - RCA - New York - 1930s - Newsreels

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By the outbreak of war in 1939, there were an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 television sets in London. Coverage extended to Birmingham in 1948 with the opening of the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter, and by the early 1950s the entire country was covered.

Related Topics:
1939 - Birmingham - 1948 - Sutton Coldfield television transmitter - 1950s

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Alexandra Palace was the home base of the channel until the early 1950s when the majority of production moved to the Lime Grove Studios, and then in 1960 the headquarters moved to the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, also in London, where the channel is based to this day.

Related Topics:
1950s - Lime Grove Studios - 1960 - BBC Television Centre - White City - London

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The station was renamed BBC1 when BBC2 was launched in April 1964. In 1969, simultaneous with ITV and two years after BBC2, the channel began 625-line PAL colour programming. Stereo transmissions began in 1988, and wide-screen programming was introduced on digital platforms in 1998. However, many of these developments took some years to become available on all transmitters.

Related Topics:
BBC2 - 1964 - 1969 - ITV - PAL - 1988 - 1998

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For the first half-century of its existence, with the exception of films and imported programmes from countries such as the United States and Australia, almost all the channel's output was produced by the BBC's in-house production departments. This changed following the 1990 Broadcasting Act, which required that 25% of the BBC's television output be out-sourced to independent production companies. As of 2004 many popular BBC One shows are made for the channel by independents, but the in-house production departments continue to contribute heavily to the schedule.

Related Topics:
Film - United States - Australia - 1990 Broadcasting Act - 2004

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