"renamed BBC1 in 1964, after the launch of BBC2 (now BBC Two), the third television station (ITV was the second) for the UK; its remit, to provide more niche programming. The channel was due to launch on 20 April 1964, but was put off the air by a massive power failure that affected much of London, caused by a fire at Battersea Power Station. A videotape made on the opening night was rediscovered in 2003 by a BBC technician. In the end the launch went ahead the following night, hosted by Denis Tuohy holding a candle. BBC2 was the first"
"at loss-making clearance prices. By 1966 Pye was in such difficulties that they started to reduce their manufacturing capacity with closure of the EKCO factory in Southend-on-Sea. Philips attempted to buy out the ailing Pye in 1966. The Trade Secretary Anthony Wedgwood Benn determined that a complete sale would create a ""de facto"" monopoly so he permitted the transfer of only a 60% shareholding, with an undertaking that the Lowestoft factory would continue to manufacture televisions. On 20 April 1964, BBC2 was launched, broadcasting entirely on the new television standard of 625-line UHF, but BBC1 and ITV would remain in"
"sub-continent. This was Radio Ceylon's golden era. Radio Luxembourg remained popular during the 1950s but saw its audience decline as commercial television and pirate radio, combined with a switch to a less clear frequency, began to erode its influence. BBC television resumed on June 7, 1946, and commercial television began on September 22, 1955. Both used the pre-war 405-line standard. BBC2 came on the air on April 20, 1964, using the 625-line standard, and began PAL colour transmissions on July 1, 1967, the first in Europe. The two older networks transmitted in 625-line colour from 1969. During the 1960s there"
"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"
"6:30 p.m. (its sign-on time on Sundays was later extended to 11:00 a.m. that May). In March 1958, channel 2 began offering academic instructional television programs, with the debut of eight weekly science programs aimed at students in the sixth grade, which were televised “in some 48 separate school systems in and around the Boston area.” In November of that year, the station installed a new full-power transmitter donated by Westinghouse, which increased channel 2's transmitting power to 100,000 watts. During the early morning hours of October 14, 1961, a large fire caused significant damage to the Cambridge studios of"
"front of the building suffered moderate damage, but was soon repaired. Television Centre has suffered from power cuts that affected normal broadcasting, but these were not seen as a systemic problem. One such power cut caused the launch night of BBC2, on 20 April 1964, to be cancelled; programmes began the next day. A major power failure occurred on 20 June 2000 at approximately 5 p.m., affecting the entire Television Centre resulting in services such as BBC Two and BBC Radio 4 coming off air, and BBC News 24 went off air before being relocated to the BBC's Westminster studios."
"and James Mossman and restored ratings to the 8-10 million level. Michael Peacock and Donald Baverstock, with Ian Atkins, were given the daunting task in 1959 of preparing a report into ways to improve BBC Television News. Their recommendations were accepted in full, and in 1960 he was promoted to Editor of Television News, then based at Alexandra Palace. He remained in this post until 1963, when he was appointed Chief of Programmes (BBC-2). His task was to lead the launch of the BBC's second channel due to begin transmissions in 625line UHF in April 1964. During the first year"
"BBC1 and BBC2 on air. A year-end Christmas show featuring a review of the year's biggest hits was inaugurated on 24 December 1964, and has continued every year since. From 1965 onward, the special edition was broadcast on Christmas Day (although not in 1966) and from the same year, a second edition was broadcast in the days after Christmas, varying depending on the schedule, but initially regularly on 26 December. The first was shown on 26 December 1965. In 1973, there was just one show, airing on Christmas Day. In place of the traditional second show, Jimmy Savile hosted a"
"by Radio 2 but sometimes by Radio 1 until that station acquired its own FM frequencies in 1988. The long-running soap opera ""The Archers"" was first heard nationally on the Light Programme, on 1 January 1951, although a week-long pilot version had been broadcast on the Midlands Home Service in 1950. BBC Light Programme The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave frequency which had earlier been used – prior"
"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"
"405 line system and had to be ready to accommodate the impending switch from black and white to colour. Programmes had to be capable of being viewed on either the old 405 line or new 625 line sets. To make matters worse both channels had to be able to broadcast US-made programmes which were made using an altogether different system and which were already transmitted in a crude colour system which Redmond derided as 'Mickey Mouse'. The technical problems were overcome by the opening night of BBC2 in 1964 but the opening was wrecked by a power cut throughout central"
"BBC Light Programme The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave frequency which had earlier been used – prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 – by the BBC National Programme. The service was intended as a domestic replacement for the wartime BBC Forces Programme (later, the General Forces Programme) which had proved popular with civilian audiences in Britain as well as members of the"
"He was seconded to the Recorded Programmes Production Unit and began regular broadcasts as a presenter of ""Transatlantic Turntable"" in 1957. The following year he transferred to BBC Television, joining the production team of the new arts programme ""Monitor"". He directed many studio programmes and film documentaries, working alongside Ken Russell, John Schlesinger, David Jones and Peter Newington, rising to the post of editor, in succession to his mentor Huw Wheldon, in 1962. He helped spearhead the BBC's preparation for the opening of BBC-2, launched in April 1964, and the following year was appointed the BBC's first Head of Music"
"In 1963 a second mast was built alongside the existing structure. This was in order to carry the new BBC Wales 405-line TV service on Band III VHF channel 13, and entered service on 9 February 1964. It too remained on air until the closure of 405-line television in 1985. On 12 September 1965, a 625-line black and white television service BBC2 became available from Wenvoe on UHF. This new transmitter was capable of colour broadcasting from the start and was used for unannounced colour TV engineering test-transmissions from that point onwards. In September 1967 BBC2 officially launched a colour"
"UK's BBC2 beginning on July 1, 1967 (using the PAL system). West Germany's first colour broadcast occurred in August (PAL), followed by the Netherlands in September (PAL), and by France in October (SECAM). Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary all started regular colour broadcasts around 1969/1970. Ireland's national TV station RTÉ began using colour in 1968 for recorded programmes; the first outside broadcast made in colour for RTÉ Television was when Ireland hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1971. The PAL system spread through most of Western Europe. More European countries introduced colour television"
"BBC Two 'Cube' ident The Cube 2 was an ident used by BBC Two between 2 December 1967 and 28 December 1974. It featured a stylised '2' that rotated on screen. In 1967, BBC2 was the first UK television station to launch a full colour service on the UHF frequency band, and to mark the occasion a new symbol was launched. However, there is some confusion as to when the symbol was actually launched. Some colour programming was shown in the early part of the year, before the official date of 1 July 1967, but even the official launch date"
"idents without changing. A new set of idents themed around ""oneness"" was introduced on 1 January 2017. Commissioned by the BBC's in-house creative agency, it shows groups of people coming together through their activities in everyday life. BBC Two is the second BBC channel and the third channel to air in the UK. Following the success of , the third channel was awarded to the BBC. Following this, the BBC planned a brilliant night's entertainment for their opening night. However, the opening extravaganza was forced to reschedule from 20 April 1964 to the following evening, as the result of a"
"the outside world through a library of specially made films. Because of a blackout the previous night, the first edition of ""Play School"" inadvertently opened the new BBC 2 service on 21 April 1964. One of its innovations was a rotating team of diverse presenters with as many men as women. According to Samira Ahmed, Whitby found Brian Cant's ""unpretentious charm"" at his audition ideal for the new show. The presenters were not all English. Paul Danquah is thought to have been the first black presenter of a children's programme. Rick Jones was Canadian and Marla Landi, Italian. Eric Thompson"
"BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is adult contemporary or AOR, although the station also broadcasts other specialist musical genres. Radio 2 broadcasts throughout the UK on FM between 88.1 and 90.2MHz from studios in Wogan House, adjacent to Broadcasting House in central London. Programmes are relayed on digital radio via DAB, Sky, Cable TV, IPTV, Freeview, Freesat and the Internet. The station was launched at 5:30am on 30 September 1967,"
"what was known at the time as VHF, as the BBC developed a network of local FM transmitters. From its first day of broadcasting in 1945 until Monday 2 September 1957, the Light Programme would be on the air from 9 am until midnight each day, apart from Sundays when it would come on the air at 8 am. From Monday 2 September 1957, the Light Programme's broadcasting hours would start to increase, with a new early morning start time of 7 am, later moving to 6:30 am from Monday 29 September 1958. In 1964 broadcasting hours were increased even"
"stations are White City and Wood Lane. On Friday 1 April 1949 Norman Collins, the Controller of the BBC Television Service, announced at the Television Society's annual dinner at The Waldorf Hilton, London that a new TV centre would be built in Shepherd's Bush. London broadcasts at the time came from Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove Studios (from 1949). It was to be the largest television centre in the world. Riverside Studios in Hammersmith were used from 1954. It was planned to be , but turned out to be twice as big. On 24 August 1956 the main contract was"
"to bring the BBC national radio stations to the Channel Islands. Before 1955 the Channel Islands had no transmitters, and received radio transmissions of the BBC national radio stations from mainland England, which could easily be picked up in the Channel Islands. The BBC started FM transmissions on 16 October 1961 from Les Platons, of the Home, Light and Third Programmes (had started in the UK in the mid-to-late 1950s). Later this became 91.1 as Radio 2 (with occasional Radio 1), 94.75 as Radio 3 (later rounded up to 94.8), and 97.1 as Radio 4. The Fremont Point transmitter would"
"British channel to use UHF and 625-line pictures, giving higher definition than the existing VHF 405-line system. On 1 July 1967, BBC Two became the first television channel in Europe to broadcast regularly in colour, using the West German PAL system that was in use for decades until being gradually superseded by digital systems. (BBC One and ITV began 625-line colour broadcasts simultaneously on 15 November 1969). Unlike other terrestrial channels, BBC Two does not have soap opera or standard news programming, but a range of programmes intended to be eclectic and diverse (although if a programme has high audience"
"1960 the BBC televised a thirteen-episode adaptation of Charles Dickens's ""Barnaby Rudge"". In December of that year it broadcast a four-episode dramatization of Jane Austen’s ""Persuasion"". To compete with commercial television, BBC launched BBC-2 in 1964. It had a new time slot allocated for classic serial adaptations on Saturday evenings. The late-night broadcast allowed for more risky and sophisticated choices and for longer episodes. In 1967 ""The Forsyte Saga"" was broadcast in 26 50-minute episodes. Following its success in Britain, the series was shown in the United States on public television and broadcast all over the world, and became the"
"obsolete. After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August 1936, the BBC Television Service officially launched on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London. ""Ally Pally"" housed two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and the transmitter itself, which then broadcast on the VHF band. BBC television initially used two systems on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system. The use of both formats made the BBC's service the world's first regular high-definition television service; it broadcast from Monday to Saturday"
"urban myth that, upon resumption of the BBC television service after the war, announcer Leslie Mitchell started by saying, ""As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted ..."" In fact, the first person to appear when transmission resumed was Jasmine Bligh and the words said were ""Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh ... ?"" The European Broadcasting Union was formed on 12 February 1950, in Torquay with the BBC among the 23 founding broadcasting organisations. Competition to the BBC was introduced in 1955, with the commercial and independently operated television network of"
"""The Sky at Night"" were created; ""Panorama"" was relaunched; and David Attenborough began his wildlife broadcasting career. Miall was promoted to assistant controller at the BBC in 1961, in charge of the planning for the new BBC television channel, BBC2, which began broadcasting in 1964. He was appointed OBE in 1961. After a period as Assistant Controller for Programme Services, Television, Miall returned to America in 1966 to run the BBC's New York office, in charge of editing news coverage and also selling BBC costume dramas to American television channels. He returned to London in 1971 to become controller of"
"Peter"", which debuted in 1958) would now be introduced by regular announcers whilst younger children's programming was broadcast under the ""Watch with Mother"" banner. The 1964 launch of BBC Two allowed additional room for children's programming with an edition of ""Play School"" technically being the first official programme. On 1 October 1980, ""Watch with Mother"" was replaced by ""See-Saw"", which was moved to BBC2 in June 1987, before ending in 1990. Meanwhile, weekday afternoon children's programmes on BBC One were introduced by the usually off-screen continuity announcer, though often specially-designed menus and captions would be used. On 9 September 1985,"
"stations carry news bulletins, for example) and all hold some form of public service requirement in terms of their output. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began a regular television service, one of the first in the world, in 1936 as the BBC Television Service, funded to this day by a yearly mandatory licence fee. Since 1964 the BBC have provided two analogue television services, BBC One and BBC Two. Both services carried a wide variety of content as well as regional variations in programming and sometimes continuity. Latterly the BBC Two variations have been limited to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland"
"children. The Alberts The Alberts were a British music/comedy troupe of the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, featuring brothers Anthony ""Tony"" and Douglas ""Dougie"" Gray, along with Bruce Lacey. Educated at the Oratory School (Kensington), they were evacuated during World War II to Penzance. They left school after the war and performed their National Service in Egypt. They appeared on several of Spike Milligan's television series. They intended to inaugurate the fledgling BBC2 on 20 April 1964, but a power failure delayed the launch until the following day. For almost the entire year of 1963, beginning January 1963, in the West End,"
"act of 1954 in an effort to break up the monopoly of the monopoly the BBC had on television broadcasting, gaining fifteen regional broadcasting licenses in less than twenty years.<ref name=""ABout ITV/History""></ref> Today the BBC and ITV are the two free to air digital services offered to everyone in the United Kingdom and each others biggest competitors. The BBC has nine national television channels, BBC three, the first channel to switch from television to online, an interactive channel, ten national and forty local radio stations, BBC Online, and BBC Worldwide. ITV currently holds thirteen of the fifteen regional broadcasting licenses"
"a continuing series of archival, unedited interviews, mainly with contemporary composers. Copies of many of Gavin's films on contemporary music have been deposited in the archives of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. Barrie Gavin Barrie Gavin (born 10 June 1935) is a British film director. He studied history at the University of Cambridge from 1954 to 1957. He joined the BBC as an assistant film editor in 1961. With the opening of BBC Two in 1964 he began to direct programmes principally about music. In the early years of BBC2 there was regular coverage of chamber music and"
"of well-known character actors, of whom the film star Kenneth More was the most famous name. The series was originally shown over twenty-six episodes on Saturday evenings between 7 January and 1 July 1967 on BBC2, with each episode repeated the following Tuesday evening. This was originally intended to encourage viewers to switch over to BBC2, which had launched in 1964. However, only a small proportion of the viewing public could receive the channel as it was broadcast on the then-new 625-line broadcasting system, which required a new TV set to receive, compared to the old 405-line system that BBC1"