1937: The FIRST shows on BBC TELEVISION | Classic Clips | BBC Archive

[@jdm65]

Another splendid upload, BBC! And apologies to Mr Cholmondley-Warner for having watched this at home.

[@brianmmacu]

“it includes a dreadful girl”

[@stephensmith1343]

He's C-W's double

[@SpecialJay]

Indeed, I stepped out to remain properly compliant for without propriety and compliance where indeed would the Empire be?

[@carltrotter7622]

Indeed. I'm sure Grayson would forgive you, Mr Cholmondley-Warner on the other hand, perhaps not.

[@tomkent4656]

Aka Leslie Mitchell

[@PatJenningsGloves]

Harry Enfield must have watched this back in the day.I thought that the women were going to talk about kittens and how lovely they are

[@mobileupload4374]

Women…. Know your place! 😂

[@sinkvenice4438]

I don’t know anything about the gold standard.

[@krashd]

The whole thing would be just frightfully dreadful.

[@TV-ni5sm]

It's amazing to see this program at the moment

[@panqueque445]

"This picture is very intense in color"

[@sirpenguinhonkers]

*colour 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@dozz87]

Crazy to see that TV content really hasn't changed much in the last 90 odd years

[@Sheffield_Steve]

I don't think they were throwing invertebrates at Z-list, no mark celebrities back in 1936. 😉👍

[@johnking5174]

These "Demonstration Films" usually aired at 11am and were designed to be seen by customers whilst they were in an electrical store, looking at these new television sets on sale.

[@brianmmacu]

That presenter would look down his nose at Jacob Rees Mogg

[@thecaveofthedead]

So should any human with a lick of sense.

[@petergivenbless900]

I can't help but feel that, in 1937, that girl in the bathing suit being spun around, legs akimbo, by the skaters in tails, would have served as some kind of period pornography!

[@benfisher1376]

No they had real pornograghy in the 30s, and before.

[@petergivenbless900]

@@benfisher1376 oh don't be silly; everyone knows that folks didn't even have genitalia before the 1960s!

[@AtheistOrphan]

“Good evening Grayson”

[@djowen5192]

The famous English smile😂

[@EE12CSVT]

Those teeth....

[@oaktadopbok665]

Ah yes, the science of palm-reading

[@rmc57uk]

The First shows were in 1936 when the service launched, initially on a demonstration basis at Radiolympia then the full service later in the year.

[@jamesslick4790]

I love how the emphasis was on live broadcast, not "film". This happened with radio as well (as opposed to "merely" playing records) . I get where they'd want to focus on "live" because this was NEW, but did the set owning audience actually care? To me, if I was a 1930s television receiver owning person, I'd be satisfied that the whole damned thing WORKED at all!

[@borderlands6606]

When roller skating was performed in tails.

[@PlanetImo]

👀Those skaters!!! Amazing and terrifying!

[@PlanetImo]

Johny Nit was brilliant, too.

[@sparky123984]

Leslie Mitchell and jasmine bligh with Elizabeth Cowell our the bbc announcers here from 1936

[@MatthewOfLondon]

Just so interesting and yet so strange. If for some reason I woke up in 1937 I don't know how I would cope. They would probably stick me in a madhouse.

[@kamandi1362]

If I woke up in 1937 I’d jump for joy.

[@olliered9924]

@@kamandi1362 Not if you lived in the cities that got bombed during ww2

[@Plumjet09]

If I woke up in 1937 the first thing I’d do is breathe

[@miss_michelle]

That skating lady must have been extremely dizzy after all that

[@r4zi3lgintoro65]

lovely

[@Davyfb75]

The original demo film was to a 7 year old quite exciting. I watched it many times, parts of it survived to be in the post war demo film + Petula Clark and the Beverly sisters

[@Sofilalaa]

👏🏼splendid

[@anthonygudgeon4298]

When the BBC was an EXCELLENT service worth paying for!

[@james.strong]

Crazy thing is though is that the entertainment seams as good if better than today 😂

[@nisconupi5705]

Back then, the British Empire still existed.

[@MrHammerkop]

3:03 That energetic chap on skates and in tails. Did he perhaps lose his top hat during the whirling frenzy of manhandling the poor maidservant in skimpy undergarments?

[@pauldavies6037]

Not sure which is more bizarre 1937 or 2022 entertainment

[@Jabberstax]

No contest - today's BBC is getting worse and worse

[@fidelcatsro6948]

2022

[@alanculbert5146]

2022 by far. Woke shite forced upon all of us! Unfortunately I fear it is only going to get worse

[@pauldavies6037]

@@alanculbert5146 Dead Right Friend

[@ev4898]

@@Jabberstax no, it’s getting better with Strictly and Gladiators.

[@ForceFreeTrainergirl06]

Gosh I just about cracked up when the lady reading hands came on. Put a headscarf on her and she would have been typical of a palm reader on Gt Yarmouth seafront LOL! That was quite bizarre.

[@keithelster8858]

She must have been the love child of the Sea Hag (from the Popeye comics), and the Wicked Witch of the West.

[@PAOKTSIS_staurpoupoli_fcknwo]

WHY!!!!This channel has few subscribers?????

[@krashd]

Probably because the comment section is full of bigots and dinosaurs, with proper moderation the channel would likely appeal to a lot more people.

[@malcolmbrewis5582]

​@@krashd Some specific examples would help people appreciate how you are applying the definition of the labes to which you actually refer.

[@jourwalis-8875]

This is not TV! it´s a film!

[@harrynewiss4630]

I thought the last bit was an early edition of the black and white minstrel show for a moment

[@hellie_el]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@davidpanton3192]

John Piper looks a right laugh, doesn't he?

[@neilmason3130]

Big fan of modern art. Or ancient art as we call it now.

[@borderlands6606]

Actually, John Piper and John Betjeman worked on the Shell guides, and they never stopped laughing.

[@stephensmith1343]

Where's Grayson

[@garryleeks4848]

This is the BBC in a posh accent, see where Harry Enfield got he’s ideas now

[@moonlover2022]

Wow, my grandpa was not even born back then, (btw he is born in 1942)

[@generalmail5151]

Johnny Nit the only skilled person shown

[@fidelcatsro6948]

he died young 37??

[@garyfrancis6193]

Not sure if W can book this talent now?

[@jourwalis-8875]

This is just a filmed transmission! Nothing else!

[@MartinFarrell1972]

It'll never catch on!

[@boringlyawesum]

back when britain was still great

[@johnking5174]

1:17 - a nice example of the great toothpaste shortage of the 1930s in the UK - just look at the state of his teeth. If this had been in colour it would have looked even worse.

[@peterstevenson6187]

😊

[@BuffOrpington7]

"Attyempted"

[@33Crazydude]

It's scarey to think that all of the people in this video are deceased🙁

[@linuxducky]

Damn the oral hygiene wasn't very good back then thats for sure lol

[@Jabberstax]

England in those days looks so much nicer than England today.

[@garryleeks4848]

Shite today

[@sam-ze8bz]

It was getting bombed back then by the Germans I doubt it

[@garryleeks4848]

@John Evans I was born 1967 , so a 70s kid, what great times I had 👍

[@garryleeks4848]

@John Evans I would hate to be a kid today 😬😬

[@malcolmbrewis5582]

It was certainly a more gracious, genteel and civilised Country.

[@latinamerican1000]

This seems more entertaining than what is presently on the BBC, hahaha?

[@Jimfowler82]

Jordan Peterson time travelling

[@BenjyDale]

The figure skaters and the tap dancer should appear on Strictly :-)

[@anthonygudgeon4298]

I wonder what the pronouns are?

[@krashd]

It would depend on what class you were and who you were allowed to address.

[@bletheringfool]

Strictly Come skating

[@hairybear7705]

"A load of weirdo's wiv poncy voices"

[@thebat7048]

Is Dr Charlotte Wolf Joseph Goebbels in disguise 😯

[@kamandi1362]

She was a jewess.

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

Its the wicked witch of the west just warming up

[@nullname0]

ofc there is blackface

[@luketaylor9881]

Wonderful Received Pronunciation accents. Droopy eyelids makes the male presenters look either stoned or just bored !

[@malcolmbrewis5582]

Ah, Received Pronunciation were the days of clear Pronunciation, Diction and Enunciation. It was in the late1960s my Father commented on why the actors were shouting at each other when they were effectively in each others faces. When people are shouting, their speech invariably lacks the clarity of RP. Whether accidental or deliberate, it had the effect of changing how People would sometimes interact.

[@chestercopperpot9294]

BBC went downhill once regional accents were broadcast.

[@joshuataylor3550]

Do grow up.

[@aurora_skye]

Why?

[@fidelcatsro6948]

stop being catcist!

[@GrahamCLester]

Not nearly as sophisticated as I expected. 1937 and already searching for the lowest common denominator.

[@Adam-qu5uk]

Who knew after 85 years the channel will become so WOKE.

[@malcolmbrewis5582]

What would Lord Reith have said about the deliberately permitted perversion of the BBC, a once previously respected World Wide broadcasting organisation.

[@kurman4749]

BBC television today is absolute rubbish, especially the programmes broadcast on weekday mornings. The same applies to ITV. Suffice it to say that I watch very little television these days.