BBC Television rehearsal - 1946

In October 1945 the Government announced it wanted the BBC to start television again, as soon as possible, on the pre-war technical standard. The BBC Television Service reopened on 7th June 1946, but engineers and programme officials had begun to return to Alexandra Palace as soon as the Government announcement was made.

By April 1946 the station was fully equipped and ready to begin trial programmes to check all systems and the two studios were again operational. The BBC engaged The Windmill Girls for a trial programme and this British Pathe Newsreel shows them performing two routines.

Cecil Madden, the Programme Organiser, was Producer for this trial programme, who can be seen directing the cameramen from the control gallery. Also featured in this newsreel is shots of the control gallery of Studio B - something that is seldom seen in any film footage or photographs. Also seen is the central control room, where all programme sources were co-ordinated and then sent to the vision and sound transmitters.

This Pathe Newsreel was shot on 15th April 1946, six weeks prior to the officla reopening of the BBC Television Service.

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

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[stuartthegrant]

I really enjoyed that rehearsal filmed the year I was born. The @aptsarchive is a great resource of historical merit,

 Well done guys, keep up the good work..Stuart

[aptsarchive]

@stuartthegrant Thank you for your comments and glad you enjoyed this footage.  We try hard to provide historical footage for researches and academics who find it virtually impossible to view any material concerning television history, as it just isn't made available.

[altfactor]

Since there had been a seven-and-a-half year gap from the end of TV service and its resumption, the BBC probably had to train a lot of people to operate the equipment and produce program(me)s, since many of the pre-war staff weren't available to return to the TV studios at Alexandria Palace in 1946.

[aptsarchive]

@altfactor Many thanks for your comment. And you are quite right, a great deal of staff had to be trained for the relaunch of the BBC Television Service. However, the majority of engineers, who had been called up to work with radar, were released early from the services, so they could return to Alexandra Palace to prepare for the resumption of the service.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

Thanks for sharing this on here.

I'm interested in finding out, would this test broadcast have been viewable by the general public who had a TV set?

[aptsarchive]

@Meanmanmartin2007 This test broadcast, in April 1946, was a closed-circuit, so it was not actually transmitted to the home audience. Tuning signals were being transmitted at this point (to test the transmitter) and these tuning signals would have been viewable by the general public who owned a television set.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

@altfactor I hadn't thought of that at all but it makes complete sense.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

@aptsarchive Thanks for explaining.

Another question, I know this is a bit off topic but was there actually a purpose of those tuning signals that they had just before the service closed down in 1939?

[aptsarchive]

@unhban At somepoint during the conversion somebody decided to put a sepia tint over the video sequence!

[unhban]

Just wonder why it's orange and not black and white?