I keep hearing about BBC impartiality. Is that the BBC that reversed the footage from Orgreave, thereby making it appear that the miners charged the massed ranks of police on horseback or in riot gear … And not the other way around? That impartiality? Sandra tweet 9th March 2023
Funny how all these right-wing newspapers banging on about ‘BBC impartiality’ seem to have no problem with the fact that the Chair of the BBC Richard Sharp donated £400,000 to the Tories over a near 20-year period… Tweet Richard Burgon tweet MP 09 March 2023
Programme making was precarious and frought with risk. How the BBC Began I: Accident and Opportunity, BBC 2022
Even the man at the top had to start from scratch. ibid.
The British Broadcasting Company began five years before there were talkies in the cinema. ibid.
The radio pioneers were fired up by a mission to educate and inform as well as entertain. ibid.
John Reith: his influence still guides the BBC today. ibid.
The more expensive wireless receivers were less risky than the crystal sets. ibid.
Only seven years in the BBC began experimenting with television. ibid.
It was a matter of more or less making it up as they went along. ibid.
It was in a more challenging mood: The Wednesday Play. ibid.
The BBC felt its wartime role was to stregthen civilian morale. ibid.
Watkins then moved on to The War Game … what might happen in Britain after a nuclear attack … The BBC decided initially to run with it. ibid.
1953: A young woman was ready to launch eight hours of the world’s biggest television broadcast to date. How the BBC Began II
The Queen’s coronation was a pivotal moment for the BBC. For the first time television outstripped radio. ibid.
With the launch of ITV, it’s television monopoly was over. ibid.
‘The BBC was so bad, so dull and so boring.’ ibid. Robin Day
ITN stole a march on the BBC by using a woman newscaster from the start. ibid.
‘Robert Dougall was the one, yes. He was very much against it.’ ibid. Nan Winton, sacked pioneering female newsreader
Part of the BBC building at Caversham was occupied by the men from UNCLE – Uncle Sam. ibid.
The outside broadcast team spent much of its time covering sport. ibid.
Breakdowns were part of 1950s life. ibid.
Telstar was the guinea pig for bringing live pictures across the Atlantic. ibid.
The battle for the adult audience became critical. ibid.
‘What saved the BBC was the coming of BBC2.’ ibid. man in the know
The biggest and costliest technological development to date: colour. ibid.
The plaudits Civilisation enabled by Joanna Spicer came raining in. ibid.
The first prime minister to address the nation on television was Churchill’s successor, Sir Anthony Eden. How the BBC Began III
An arcane system, incredible now, in which the BBC was under parliament’s thumb. ibid.
BBC2: It became effectively an independent pirate operation within the BBC itself. ibid.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s The Black and White Minstrels Show!’ … The show lasted until 1978. ibid.
In the 1960s parts of the BBC were grappling with social change. ibid.