The First BBC Programme - 1936

Here's Looking At You! - the first television programme from Alexandra Palace - took the air on August 26, 1936, and the first artist to appear on the screens was Helen McKay.

[@APotatoWT]

How far we've come in 87 years is amazing

[@yasminx16]

This sends shivers down my spine. Just incredible.

[@Hvghhgg939]

It’s not that deep

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

This was the start of the world’s first continuous high-definition (405 lines) television service with regular programming and available to anyone who purchased a TV set. Before then, tv broadcasts were experimental, demonstrations, tests, confined to select audiences etc

[@stoyanfurdzhev]

I'm glad that there is a drum set on one of the first televised transmissions in Europe.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Well, this was the first Marconi-EMI program. The mechanical version of this happened a week earlier.

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

Awesome bit of history. Thanks for the upload.

[@scottpeacock5492]

How can two people dislike this clip is beyond me.

[@manzoorahmed9111]

jealous

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Annoyance that they weren't there to see it at the time?

[@Sebastian16753]

Because of no diversity!😭

[@VermyScrubs]

Simple, many people view it as the start of a “propaganda network”.

[@test-ru2jo]

I can use this video with subtitles in it! What an good idea!

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

Mad to see many of the techniques haven't changed much

[@davidlatham8630]

Wow. Her RP accent is so sharp one could slice bread with it.

[@mikemorgan7893]

It’s actually a remake made for cinema newsreels shortley after the actual broadcast

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

If so then this is cinema quality but not a representation of TV fidelity.

[@WTFBOOMDOOM]

This is several years before WWII. We tend to think of the pre-WWII era as something that happened in the pre-modern times, but look at this video, this is television. Of course there are plenty of movies from decades earlier, but they are fiction so they already feel "unreal" and therefore "ancient". Newsreels were viewed by small groups of people and not in real time. Modern real-time electronic entertainment for the masses, several years before the horrors of the "historic" WWII (which I'm sure young kids think happened in another slice of the space-time continuum, at least that's how it felt to me when I was pretty young, not that I knew about the space-time continuum (not that I know all that much about it now))...

[@WedgePee]

The MASSES?! More like the top 5%, if that! Each set cost close to £100! That was over six months' wages for the average person at the time.

[@andyfidler5022]

@@WedgePee yup...tv viewership before the war was in the thousands...and all of them in London. Masses it is not!

[@arrow4749]

@@WedgePee yh my nan didnt get a tv until 1957 lol

[@messystudios8505]

@@andyfidler5022 it wasnt even the 1000s. The estimate for viewership of the first tv broadcast was only 400. Tbf that was also coz the signal only reached about 30 miles out. not just the price of the sets.

[@raptorfromthe6ix833]

Which is funny considering that tons of celebrities such as bob hope Mickey Rooney Shirley temple and Olivia de haviland at their height during the 30s

[@sheilatagg7072]

Amazing.

[@dinomemlika7629]

This historic 1936 is scary.

[@sarpsarp8987]

What is scary?

[@manzoorahmed9111]

@@sarpsarp8987 maybe that person meant fantastic or awesome.

[@tadc345fan]

Stop saying the word "scary"

[@sheilatagg2699]

Just think how exciting that would be to see the very first programme broadcast?

[@gavinmillar7519]

That would be amazing

[@wulfrunian]

It wasn’t though. The first experimental broadcast was in 1929, seven years earlier. The BBC also broadcast on the 30 line system between 1932 and 1935.

[@scumfvckpekaboi]

OMG this is so cool

[@markbenjamin1703]

There's probably no one alive now, who saw this broadcast live

[@fastertrackcreative]

This was 87 years ago so it's not that long ago. My grandpa's 90 my grandma is 88 so it is possible though they probably wouldn't remember it. Nobody involved in _making_ it for sure though.

[@retrocysper3709]

0:01 oh she looks pretty..... what's her name???. 0:15 oh sad she walked away..... 0:19 oh no thanks I gonna go away.

[@markbenjamin1703]

Elizabeth Cowell is the presenter at the start

[@paulbennell3313]

@@markbenjamin1703 She was gorgeous!

[@markbenjamin1703]

@@paulbennell3313 it's unfortunate that her only appearances were pre-war, she left the BBC and never returned post-war due to marry a Scottish Laird

[@paulbennell3313]

@@markbenjamin1703 Lucky Scottish Laird I say!

[@justincase2281]

Was this a film of a TV screen or is this a film of the program that was broadcast? Looks too clear to be television in 1936. But it is incredible regardless.

[@messystudios8505]

it was a film. they didnt actually have videotape in those days. so everything went out live. They just filmed important programmes like this or stuff filmed outside

[@justincase2281]

@@messystudios8505 There was television in the 30s and I was wondering if it was filmed from a TV broadcast of some sort right in front of the screen. But yeah, good point. No video back in that era. There was first "Kinescope", in the late 40s and early 50s, then later video. Cheers.👍

[@messystudios8505]

@@justincase2281 It would have been stupidly expensive for someone to put a film camera in front of a tv and it would come out very poor quality.

[@justincase2281]

@@messystudios8505 Stupidly expensive? Not really. Now go away.

[@messystudios8505]

@@justincase2281 Why are u suddenly being an asshole? Do u know how much a film camera costs nowadays? let alone in the 1930s!! The film reel alone would cost £1000 in todays money. No tv viewer would spend £10,000s to record a programme. It was pretty normal for the BBC to record important programmes onto film and archive them. Thats how we have the entirety of the coronation of Elizabeth II and George VI and other important events.

[@swayze3602]

Wow ❤

[@syedalamgir5838]

Thanks BBC

[@bnelso2833]

Very nice.

[@BloodMoonASMR]

0:19 Look at those paper-thin 20s flapper brows lol

[@BloodMoonASMR]

It's like Christina Aguilera

[@filippalambert3121]

Hi! Is it okey if I use this video for a school project? Thank you from sweden!

[@melontests-testeverything2589]

filippa lambert Yes it is.

[@galaxy1234]

yyes nobody is going to claim copyright for yor school project

[@rongendron8705]

Was this a filmed version of the first t.v. program or were we actually seeing the image as the first television viewers saw it?

[@gavinmillar7519]

I think this would have gone out live but filmed for posterity maybe?

[@davba2]

This was a reconstruction staged for newsreel cameras.

[@adityadubey5204]

wow

[@diegoximenes8011]

😮😮😮EXCITING

[@Josh-rh6bs]

Does anyone know if the full version is anywhere ?

[@jsl151850b]

Hardly any of the show exists. Here's a few seconds more at 40:40 kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2K3o4WjeZZ6eMU Oops....Blocked in the USA due to copyright claims from the BBC. {What? No statute of limitations?}

[@MaSoNGaMeR115]

@@jsl151850b my god the bbc actually blocked it on copyright grounds can you believe that?

[@jsl151850b]

@@MaSoNGaMeR115 Here's 'Magic Rays of Light'. See 1:00. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6bIe6aHprKfY6M There was a recreation of opening night: The Fools on the Hill (1986 TV Movie) 'Here's Looking At You'. See 40:25 kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHTXmp2QdrZ9e7s

[@MaSoNGaMeR115]

@@jsl151850b thanks

[@G6JPG]

It's not the same song, but kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4PTl5ihYqtriNk A fuller version of this - which they freely admit is partly reconstructed - is at kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4DahHZ5raeIrKM

[@garyfrancis6193]

First BBC programme or first BBC TV program?

[@AlexanderSchmidt-jz5uf]

I didn't know 1930s ads would make me feel like I'm on LSD

[@leeorbell3490]

Elizabeth cowel is the TV announcer

[@Slawek361]

Who is that woman in beginning?

[@BIGTINGA]

Helen McKay

[@G6JPG]

@@BIGTINGA I think he was asking about the announcer (who was Elizabeth Cowell).

[@pavannair6469]

This is better than most of the shows they have on tv now. And I'm 16

[@lilfridge5652]

What? You saw 30 seconds of it

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

@@lilfridge5652 exactly. What a dumb comment from the OP

[@messystudios8505]

@@JohnKobaRuddy i mean tbf...have u seen love island?

[@kaysmith8992]

Did anyone else think TV only began in the 1950s with the Coronation? The woman's fashion style here really makes it seem so old.

[@mohank6035]

Looks like a horror movie

[@Mike8981]

lol!!!

[@kardoameen3864]

I thought exactly the same! conjuring sort of movies

[@sarpsarp8987]

Nope it doesn't.

[@pitiantifriz]

Rule 1 of JC the hyenas laws of sp00py Old thing = Scary

[@rogoffical2348]

actualy is 8mm convert into tapes and into tv television bbc. actualy is high definition of this video.

[@ObjectFiller]

0:19 Mom: Take Out The Trash me: Dad's Looking At You From assholes to brooms

[@ronaldwilliamson7963]

In those days, they evidently used heavy makeup to get a good broadcast picture.

[@JasmineSurrealVideos]

Yes, they had to because black and white film drains tones and shades from the skin, not just colour, so in films like say Chaplins and Keatons they used accentuated eye and mouth make up, and a lot of powder to compensate.

[@McShave]

Yeah heavy makeup was a thing for the black and white times. Later on they discovered green makeup looked better as red stuff showed up more like a black. There are colour photographs out there of film recordings that show actors with green faces. Bizarre.

[@G6JPG]

Especially for the earlier 30-line transmissions!

[@l_j_c_5397]

What month and date ?

[@G6JPG]

Details in the comments to kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4DahHZ5raeIrKM

[@alkansfunadventures]

26-27th August 1936

[@TRTninuzumlukeki]

Wrgb tv:"Am I a joke to you?"

[@Nabeelboragrag1]

👍👍

[@videogyandentistcare4762]

BBC 1936

[@peterdilworth3110]

[@G6JPG]

Why has it funny corners? I don't think tubes of the time were that shape.

[@katherinelikesstuff]

still better than mrs brown's boys

[@jasonwood3377]

Bet it was a repeat

[@Galaxy-f5u]

It's so OID

[@Jack-bs6zb]

Good looking women!

[@chloedevereaux1801]

damn tv, you scary.......

[@walkingTVwithadog]

TV at it's best. No smut,porn, nudity,handj*bs,profanity or satire poking fun at authority. Broadcasting Executives of 2022: please take note!

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

Poking fun at authority upsets you? The boots in your town must be gleaming.

[@millsyinnz]

Im guessing you are an admireer of the Taliban's TV service then.

[@MrTantrums007]

The 1930s was the last decade that Britain was truly British before WW2 and all the mass immigration that followed WW2.

[@michellepeoplelikeyoumurde8373]

Racist!

[@gel2503]

What a racist yob

[@kaysmith8992]

Forget immigration, it was really the Yanks who destroyed Britishness after WW2. Immigrants from elsewhere would just have copied British culture if it hadn't been for American mass media.

[@rongendron8705]

I agree!

[@JohnKobaRuddy]

You all asked for it. And don't deny it. Every vote for the bourgeoisie is a vote against yourself.

[@reltanahkusir]

Creepy

[@DavidEsparza2143]

Sael what's creepier is this was before WW2 and beside the great depression

[@chasb4515]

Sael very

[@jorisbonson386]

Ruubbish! What's on the other side?

[@emeraldhxh8793]

Scary

[@G6JPG]

Why? (I find it quaint and charming.)

[@tunahuna4817]

Unfortunatly not the last!!..........

[@m56214]

I don't think BBC will end until 2100

[@urinater]

Where is the diversity?

[@BloodMoonASMR]

It's 1936, 2 years before WWII tho

[@fredbloggs6342]

Diversity is a curse of the modern era. This was from a much better time when Britain was for the British, not immigrants claiming British status.

[@Fleegled]

i was there... good times⏲. the woman singing is my bbg 😚😚😍😍🥰🥰 we were just testing the brand new BBC type A microphone the audio quality is lowkey fire 🤑🤑🤑 after the screening we loved being on the brand new television📺 technology and we are hoping to be on many more broadcasts🤟🤟🤟