The Dawn of TV

Disc 1

Beginnings
1 Baker: The Roots of Television
2 Bridgewater: Campbell Swinton and the all-electronic approach

Shifting Shadows in Sussex
3 Mills: Helping Baird in Hastings
4 Loxdale: Schoolboy memories of Baird
5 Mills: Views on Baird’s early achievements

The World’s first Television Pictures
6 Taynton: First Television Image in reflected light – Oct 1925
7 Marsland Gander: The Press’s view of Baird’s achievement

Baird’s Experimental Years – 1927-1928
8 Herbert & Percy: Exploring television’s possibilities – 1927/28

Phonovision – the first video recordings
9 Fox & Herbert: The earliest-known video-recording – Stookie Bill
10 Parr: Phonovision
11 RWT620-11: Extract from Parr’s Phonovision disc
12 Fox & Herbert: Wally Fowlkes
13 McLean: Phonovision revealed – 1982-87
14 Richards: Last attempts at pre-recorded television

Baird the Inventor
15 Percy: Baird ‘…overflowing with ideas’
16 Marsland Gander: Entertainment Value of Baird’s early television system
17 Campbell: Television in the near Infra-Red

Bigger and Better – expansion into new premises at Long Acre – 1928
18 Percy: The Baird Company at Long Acre
19 Birch & Percy: The Importance of Jacomb

Recognition for Baird’s Achievements
20 Baker: Recognition for Baird’s achievements
21 Marsland Gander: ‘…scrap-heap of discarded inventions…’
22 Percy: Baird ‘became rather a showman’
23 Marsland Gander: Baird, the ‘marvellous publicist’
24 Percy: Baird did not envisage the success of electronics
25 Marsland Gander: The BBC regarded Baird’s television ‘as a toy’
26 Percy: Baird in the grip of ‘get-rich-quick entrepreneurs’
27 Herbert: What Baird was like as a person

The Quality of 30-line Television
28 Baker: The Quality of 30-line Television
29 Campbell: Recognising Pearl Green in Dublin
30 Percy: 30-line TV received quality
31 Percy: ‘…a magical period of endeavour’
32 Richards: The German connection – 1929
33 Campbell: Baird Company Financial Situation

The first Television Play in Britain
34 Bridgewater: Pirandello’s “The Man with the Flower in his Mouth’ – 1930
35 Campbell: The Baird Studio at Long Acre in 1930

Ladies of the Night
36 Herbert: Baird and Soho’s Ladies of the Night

Televising the Derby
37 Baker: Televising the Derby – 1931/1932
38 Campbell: Doing the Derby
39 Percy: Derby overview 1931/32
40 Percy: A back-of-the-tablecloth design
41 Campbell: Broadcasting the Derby in 1932
42 Percy: April the Fifth

Television’s popularity spreads far and wide 1929-1932
43 Herbert: The real entertainment value of Television
44 Campbell: Recognising Bridgewater in North Africa

The BBC’s first Television Service 1932-1935
45 Lance: The BBC’s first Television Service starts – August 1932
46 Bridgewater: The 30-line BBC TV Studio in 1932
47 Astell: Opening Night – 22nd August 1932
48 Astell: Recalling the experimental service 1929-1931
49 Campbell: Infrared-sensitive television cameras reveal all
50 Bridgewater: Eustace Robb, Producer of BBC TV – 1932-35
51 Astell: Special production techniques for 30-line Television
52 Bridgewater: Producing the experimental service 1929-1931
53 Astell: Executive encounter in the dark
54 Bridgewater: Antics in the dark – Lee & Bentley
55 Bridgewater: Stage Props for BBC 30-line TV
56 Herbert: Receiving BBC 30-line TV broadcasts

The BBC move to larger premises – 1934
57 Bridgewater: Expanding the BBC studio facilities – 1934
58 End of Disc 1 – insert Disc 2 to continue

Disc 2

2 McLean: Home video recordings of BBC 30-line TV – 1932-1935
3 Marsland Gander: The End of the BBC’s 30-line TV Service – 1935

New Developments in Television 1931-1936
4 Lance: Seeds of research in electronic TV start to germinate
5 Percy: Using film as source material – telecine
6 Birch: The Television Revolution – too ambitious to some
7 Bridgewater: The Iconoscope: Key to the new Television Revolution
8 Percy: Origins of electronic television in EMI – 1934
9 Percy: The Baird Company stay with mechanical scanning – 1934
10 Bridgewater: Selsdon Committee sets the direction for television in Britain
11 Marsland Gander: Strict commercial security on Marconi-EMI’s solution
12 Bridgewater: The BBC’s first impressions of 405-line Television – 1935
13 Percy: Madeleine Carroll helps test TV systems – 1935
14 Lance: The challenge of competing on the world stage
15 Percy: Film the scene, then televise the film
16 Bridgewater: The Intermediate Film process
17 Percy: Intermediate Film – the first practical ‘canned’ television

The BBC’s new high definition Television Service – Nov 1936
18 Campbell: Lighting the Marconi-EMI studio at Alexandra Palace
19 Percy: The Farnsworth camera – a failure for the Baird Company
20 Percy: Problems with electronic television – ‘tilt & bend’
21 Bridgewater: Expensive and complex dual-standard receiving sets
22 Fletcher: A performer’s view of Television at Alexandra Palace

Colour Projection Television for cinemas
23 Percy: Baird’s pursuit of large-screen colour television, 1933-38
24 Reveley: Spearheading colour television – 1938-39
25 Lance: Baird’s 600-line colour and stereoscopic television display

Conclusions
26 Herbert, Percy & Lance: Baird’s contribution to television
27 Astell: From spinning discs to satellites in a lifetime
28 McLean: The international race for Television
29 Baker: Closing remarks