"stationed as a meteorological assistant with No. 4 Bomber Group RAF in Yorkshire, and worked as a forecaster for the RAF, working in Britain, Normandy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany until 1953. In 1954 he was transferred to the London Weather Centre. On 11 January 1954, at the age of 33, George Cowling gave the first televised weather forecast, from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, at 7.55pm. The forecast was live and 'in vision', with Cowling standing in front of the weather map, using a pencil and rubber to show the weather for the next day. He informed the viewing"
"George Cowling George Cowling (2 March 1920 – 24 December 2009) was the BBC's first television weatherman. Cowling joined the Met Office in 1939 and worked as a forecaster for the RAF before joining the BBC in 1954. On 11 January 1954, he gave the first televised weather broadcast. He continued to present televised weather broadcasts for the BBC until 1957 when he rejoined the RAF. He later worked at the Met Office College and at Heathrow Airport before retiring from the Met Office in 1981. Cowling joined the Met Office in 1939, at the start of World War II,"
"from the Met Office, and worked for five years for a marine engineering firm, as a meteorology consultant before retiring. His hobbies included golf – he was a member of Burnham Beeches Golf Club, as were his former fellow BBC weathermen, Jack Scott and Bert Foord. He died on Christmas Eve 2009 after a short stay in hospital. George Cowling George Cowling (2 March 1920 – 24 December 2009) was the BBC's first television weatherman. Cowling joined the Met Office in 1939 and worked as a forecaster for the RAF before joining the BBC in 1954. On 11 January 1954,"
"Paul Rotha's documentary ""Land of Promise"" (1946). When BBC television started broadcasting again in 1946 Cowell was now married to the laird of a Scottish estate and had left the BBC. Elizabeth Cowell Elizabeth Cowell (1912–1998) was a British broadcaster and the first female television announcer. She was one of the first three BBC Television Service presenters, along with Jasmine Bligh and Leslie Mitchell. She began announcing when the Television Service started in 1936 and made her debut on Monday 31 August that year at Alexandra Palace in London. This was a few months before the official launch of BBC"
"estimated audience of 20 million viewers in Britain and 227 million globally. She later became involved in teaching the Queen the broadcasting skills necessary for her Royal Christmas Message broadcasts, by recording a training film for the monarch. The film demonstrated various techniques such as reading a script and using an autocue, the latter of which the Queen chose for her broadcasts. Peters was chosen in 1954 to host ""Come Dancing"" (the predecessor of ""Strictly Come Dancing""), In 1956, she presented the children's programme ""For Deaf Children"", and she was a compere for ""Television Dancing Club"", which featured the bandleader"
"could earn £1/19s/11d by sharing ""their intimate secrets"". In May 1954, he took the show to television with the programme ""Ask Pickles"" which ran until 1956. The show was publicized enthusiastically by the BBC: In 1948, a children's board game entitled ""Ask Pickles"" was published by jigsaw puzzle manufacturer Tower Press. He was the guest castaway on BBC Radio's ""Desert Island Discs"" on 2 January 1953; his chosen book was ""The Oxford Book of English Verse"" edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, and his luxury a yellow waistcoat. On television, among many performances, he appeared in ""Dr. Finlay's Casebook"" and ""For the"
"began the world's first regularly scheduled television service. Less than two weeks later, on November 13, ""The British Music Drama Opera Company"" under the Rosing's direction presented the world's first televised opera, ""Pickwick"" by Albert Coates. The performance was a preview of the new company's upcoming season at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. The Covent Garden season opened on November 18, 1936, with ""Boris Godunov"". ""Madama Butterfly"", ""The Fair at Sorochyntsi"", and ""Pagliacci"" followed, along with the premier of Coates' ""Pickwick"" and another new opera, ""Julia"", by Roger Quilter. On October 5, 1938, Rosing was back at the"
"to continue his career in England. A BBC adaptation in 1953 of the Irwin Shaw novel ""The Troubled Air"" was his first major writing assignment for television. In 1954 his production of ""Waiting For Gillian"" won the ""Daily Mail""s National TV Award with actors Patrick Barr and Anne Crawford also honoured. He subsequently recreated this production in French for transmission throughout France. In 1955 on the night commercial TV first appeared in the UK he was asked by the BBC to offer the main opposition, ""The Hole In The Wall"" with Mervyn Johns and Sidney Tafler of which ""The Times"""
"met with some opposition from her mother. However, she became a Charlot showgirl at the Cambridge Theatre, London, aged 17. Five years later, Bligh was struggling as an actress, and answered a BBC advertisement for female television 'hostess-announcers' - unmarried and without red hair. Both Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were chosen for the jobs out of 1,122 applicants from the British Empire. Along with Leslie Mitchell, they were seen during test transmissions from Alexandra Palace in 1936. She rejoined the service in 1946 when television broadcasts resumed after the Second World War and was the first person to appear when"
"the mid-1950s most of the country was covered, transmitting a 405-line interlaced image on VHF. When the ITV was launched in 1955, the BBC Television Service (renamed ""BBC tv"" in 1960) showed popular programming, including comedies, drama, documentaries, game shows, and soap operas, covering a wide range of genres and regularly competed with ITV to become the channel with the highest ratings for that week. The channel also introduced the science fiction show ""Doctor Who"" on 23 November 1963 - at 17:16 - which went on to become one of Britain's most iconic and beloved television programmes. BBC TV was"
"the Joint monopoly, for the most part. But while titles had some success, it was television that took British wrestling to the next level. The first show aired on ABC and ATV (the weekend franchise holders on ITV) on 9 November 1955, featuring Francis St Clair Gregory (father of Tony St Clair) versus Mike Marino and Cliff Beaumont versus Bert Royal live from West Ham baths. The show was successful, and wrestling became a featured attraction every Saturday afternoon from Autumn to Spring each year. In 1964, it went full-time as part of the ""World of Sport"" show. Televised wrestling"
"Television Act 1954 The Television Act 1954 was a British law which permitted the creation of the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom, ITV. Until the early 1950s, the only television service in Britain was operated as a monopoly by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and financed by the annual television licence fee payable by each household which contained one or more television sets. The new Conservative government elected in 1951 wanted to create a commercial television channel, but this was a controversial subject—the only other examples of commercial television were to be found in the United States, and"
"commercial television started broadcasting in stages between 1955 and 1962. The first advertisement aired by ITV promoted Gibbs SR toothpaste at 20.12hrs local time on 22 September 1955. Household cleaners were the most frequently advertised products over the 1955–1960 period. Television Act 1954 The Television Act 1954 was a British law which permitted the creation of the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom, ITV. Until the early 1950s, the only television service in Britain was operated as a monopoly by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and financed by the annual television licence fee payable by each household which contained"
"on a number of popular programmes such as ""Housewives' Choice"", ""Midday Spin"", and ""Two Way Family Favourites"" as well as late evening shows like ""Music to Midnight"". Beerling brought in Simon Dee from the pirate radio scene and he was also the first producer of Terry Wogan. As an admirer of the pirate radio stations he devised a fast moving new radio show on Saturdays called ""Where It's At"", one of Kenny Everett earliest shows. Beerling was one of the few employees of the BBC Light Programme in the mid-1960s to regard the model of offshore pirate radio as one"
"on television in 1946, with a still picture of Big Ben. Televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event. That year, there"
"eventual cancellation from television in 1978, although a stage version ran for ten years after the show's cancellation at Victoria Palace Theatre, London. This was followed by tours of Australia and New Zealand. ""The Black and White Minstrel Show"" was created by BBC producer George Inns working with George Mitchell. It began as a one-off special in 1957 called ""The 1957 Television Minstrels"" featuring the male Mitchell Minstrels (Mitchell was the musical director) and the female Television Toppers dancers. The show was first broadcast on the BBC on 14 June 1958. It was popular and soon developed into a regular"
"first ever televising of Wimbledon (21 June 1937), the Boat Race (2 April 1938), the FA Cup Final (30 April 1938) and test match cricket (24 June 1938). Major live news events also began to be covered – BBC television cameras were present when Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich to deliver his infamous ""peace in our time"" speech in October 1938. This increasingly varied and ambitious schedule put together by Cock and his small but inventive team of producers meant that television very quickly grew in popularity, despite at the time being an expensive luxury limited to the London area."
"in 1956 at the age of 47.) Because the programme had already been scheduled, Attenborough took over the presenter's role. The first series, called simply ""Zoo Quest"", gained viewers with each episode, and Attenborough found himself being stopped in the street and asked 'Are you going to catch that bird or not?' Six sequels followed, each named according to its theme. For example, ""Zoo Quest for a Dragon"" featured the first-ever television footage of the Komodo dragon, while ""Quest for the Paradise Birds"" was centred on the birds-of-paradise of New Guinea. Attenborough wrote a book to accompany each series except"
"followed by ""Cookery Lesson"" (with co-presenter Marguerite Patten) and ""What's Cooking"" from 1956. His emphasis was always on method and principles rather than recipes, but he could be remarkably dogmatic - ""The Pot to the Kettle not the Kettle to the Pot!"". Philip Harben can be credited with the first TV ""moment"" when on live television he cracked an egg that was so bad he had to abandon the recipe while he and the studio crew broke into helpless laughter. He had a regular column in the British ""Woman's Own"" magazine in the 1950s. In 1958 he helped found the"
"additional titles led to overexposure. While the World and British titles had some credibility (particularly as they were often placed on the more legitimate wrestlers), the addition of European, Empire/Commonwealth, Scottish, Welsh, and area championships got out of hand, and at one point there were conceivably 70 different titleholders to keep track of within Joint Promotions alone. But while titles had some success, it was television that took British wrestling to the next level. The first show aired on ABC and ATV (the weekend franchise holders on ITV) on 9 November 1955, featuring Francis St Clair Gregory (father of Tony"
"the world's first ""high-definition"" 405-line television service in 1936. It suspended its television service during the Second World War and until 1946, but remained the only television broadcaster in the UK until 1955, when Independent Television (ITV) began operating. This heralded the transformation of television into a popular and dominant medium. Nevertheless, ""throughout the 1950s radio still remained the dominant source of broadcast comedy"". Further, the BBC was the only legal radio broadcaster until 1968 (when URY obtained their first licence). Despite the advent of commercial television and radio, the BBC has remained one of the main elements in British"
"in much better form. Television may be a sitting target, but he gets it well and truly with both barrels."" Melville's TV satire appeared on Danish television (""Simon og Laura"") in December 1955, Swedish television (""Simon och Laura"") in February 1960, and Finnish television (""Simon ja Laura"") in November 1960. Then, almost ten years to the day since its West End premiere, it made it to British TV, via the recently inaugurated channel BBC2, on 19 November 1964. The director was Christopher Morahan, the producer Cedric Messina, and the settings were designed by William McCrow. Ian Carmichael was this time"
"him to seek roles in television, which was only just starting to grow in popularity in England. She suggested he write to all the producers listed in the ""Radio Times"" magazine seeking work in the medium. The move proved to be a wise one, as Cushing was hired to fill out the cast of a string of major theatre successes that were being adapted to live television. The first was J. B. Priestley's ""Eden End"", which was televised in December 1951. Over the next three years, he became one of the most active and favoured names in British television, and"
"were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still firmly under radio news' control correspondents provided reports for both outlets–and that first bulletin, shown on 5 July 1954 on the then BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown. This was then followed by the customary ""Television Newsreel"" with a recorded commentary by John Snagge (and on other occasions by Andrew Timothy). It"
"BBC first broadcast a regular archaeology programme on radio introduced by Glyn Daniel in 1946 titled ""The Archaeologist"". This was followed by a popular quiz show ""Animal, Vegetable and Mineral"" on the television in 1952, and ""Burled Treasure"" broadcast from 1954 to 1959. In 1966, the first controller of BBC Two, David Attenborough, thought that there was sufficient interest in archaeology and established a special unit on the subject, the Archaeological and Historical Unit, to produce ""Chronicle"". Attenborough intended ""Chronicle"" to report on archaeological digs and findings around the word where archaeology was shown as it was practised, and new"
"of England. It has been broadcast nationally since 1950, although for many years it still came exclusively from venues in the West Country. It was initially broadcast nationally on the BBC Light Programme and BBC Radio 2 (even being simulcast on BBC Radio 1 from 6 October 1967 to 3 April 1970). However, in this era it was repeated on the Home Service and later Radio 4. The programme has gone out exclusively on Radio 4 since 10 April 1970. It inspired the television version, ""Question Time"", on BBC1 on Thursday evenings, chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby's older brother, David Dimbleby."
"years with Jimmy Grant producing ""Jazz Club"". He returned to television in 1963. The first jazz show was a gala presentation of Duke Ellington entitled ""Ellington in Concert"", recorded at the BBC Television Theatre and hosted by Steve Race, the presenter of many of the early programmes. The first part was broadcast on BBC2 on 21 April 1964. The day had been planned as the channel’s second night, but after a fire at Battersea Power Station had blacked out all power at BBC Television Centre, it turned out to be the channel's opening night. The second part was aired five"
"1975. Speakers at the Memorial included his daughter Anne and the Reverend John F. Hayward. Serling began his career when television was a new medium. The first public viewing of an all-electric television was presented by inventor Philo Farnsworth at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934, when Serling was nine years old. Commercial television officially started on July 1, 1941. At the time, there were fewer than seven thousand TV sets in the United States, and very few of those were in private homes. Only five months later, the U.S. entered World War II, and the television"
"by one of the founders of the BBC. Delivered annually by the monarch, it was first broadcast on BBC Radio in 1932. An alternative Christmas message was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1993. Broadcast from 1951 to 1960, radio comedy ""The Goon Show"", starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. The show has exerted considerable influence on British comedy and culture. As a film star Sellers in particular became influential to film actors by using different accents and guises and assuming multiple roles"
"South London, at the age of 22. In 1953 he found work in television, at the BBC, performing a regular ten-minute cartoon drawing section in a one-hour children's show called ""Jigsaw"", with a puppet called ""Fuzz"", made and operated on the show by magician Robert Harbin. He went on to illustrate Harbin's ""Paper Magic"" programme in 1956. In 1954, Harris was a regular on a BBC Television programme ""Whirligig"", which featured a character called ""Willoughby"", who sprang to life on a drawing board, but was erased at the end of each episode. By this stage, Harris had drifted away from"
"series of documentaries about his personal life over recent years, including his bankruptcy. This led to him being taken on by BBC East Midlands in 2004 as a regular presenter on ""Inside Out"", where he reported in his own individual style. His first film for ""Inside Out"" revisited his first TV documentary, ""Two Town Mad"", made for the BBC in 1962. It was a comparison between Leicester and Nottingham and Gosling went back to the places and the people in the original film. Next came films on garden gnomes, statues, bus travel, OAP workers, frugal living, new arts buildings and"
"the Oxford Playhouse. In 1955 he joined the BBC as a runner, later becoming a production assistant on various series including ""Girl at the Window"", ""The Black Brigand"", ""The Railway Children"", ""Thompson Family"", ""Secret Garden"", ""Great Expectations"", ""Adventures of Tom Sawyer"", ""The Treasure Seekers"" and ""The Balloon and the Baron"" for which Dowling also composed the music. He then moved into production, working with others on productions including: ""Victory”, “Idiots Delight”, “Makepeace Story”, “Invisible Armies”, “Hole in the Wall”, “Pocket Lancer”, “Last Man Out”, and ""Just William"". He then directed ""Cabin in the Clearing"". From the late 1950s he undertook"
"to pass the Television Act 1954 that broke the BBC television monopoly by creating ITV. Some members wanted commercial competition to radio but were thwarted by a succession of governments. By the 1960s several companies formed in the hope that radio licences would be issued. Radio monopolies in adjoining nations had been broken by transmitters on ships in international waters. The first attempt to broadcast offshore to Britain was by CNBC, an English-language station from the same ship as Radio Veronica broadcasting in Dutch to the Netherlands. CNBC ended transmissions but press reports followed that GBLN, ""The Voice of Slough"","