1937 - 1939
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Ever since the first programmes were transmitted from Alexandra Palace in 1936, television producers have wanted to leave the constraints of the four walls of a television studio and transmit live pictures from the ‘big wide world’. They did manage to achieve this, even before the BBC had commissioned the first television outside broadcast unit. The studio cameras were taken out into the grounds of Alexandra Palace. They were still connected by cable to the studio and could only stray 1000ft into the park, as this was the maximum length of the cable.
One of first regular programmes that relied on this technique was C.H.Middleton’s gardening programme, which was first broadcast on November 21st 1936 and continued until the television service was suspended in 1939. Mr Middleton created the BBC Garden at Alexandra Palace, the equivalent of the Blue Peter Garden at the Television Centre, Wood Lane. |
C.H. Middleton in The BBC garden at Alexandra Palace. The Standard Emitron camera is at the end of a long cable connected back to the studio.
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As television could not go to some of the big events happening in London, part of the ‘big wide world‘ had to come to Alexandra Palace. This meant part of the Lord Mayor’s Show and the Heavy Horse Parade which was an annual event in Regents Park, had to come to the park at Alexandra Palace to be televised.
In 1936 there were two television studios at Alexandra Palace. Studio B used the Baird system. Studio A used Marconi-EMI Emitron cameras and it was this system which the BBC decided to adopt in February 1937. Although Baird had demonstrated an Outside Broadcast Unit at the 1931 Derby with 30-line pictures broadcast by the BBC medium wave transmitter at Brookmans Park, the Baird 240-line system in 1936 still relied on a mechanical scanning method, which was seen by the BBC as inferior to the Marconi-EMI electronic method. So, soon after the decision to choose Marconi-EMI, the BBC ordered a complete outside broadcast unit from the winning company. It consisted of three vehicles, a mobile control room or ‘scanner’ as it was called, a transmitter van and a power (generator) van. 
The sound boom that replaced the hand-held mike on early television OBs
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The interior of MCR 1
The map showing the route of cable that was used by television outside broadcasts in central london.
Radiolympia was an annual event where manufacturers of radio receivers and now television sets showed off their products. It was also an important event for the BBC. In 1937 they were able to show live pictures from London Zoo to the visitors at Olympia. The first television outside broadcasts had relied on engineers deciding which camera was selected for transmission. At the Coronation, Tony Bridgewater, Superintendent Engineer Television, filled that role. By August 1937, the BBC had appointed the first outside broadcast producer, Philip Dorte.
Philip Dorte’s previous job was a sound recordist on feature films such as ‘Rhodes of Africa’ in 1936. He soon started to make his mark on the productions made by the Outside Broadcast Unit. For the London Zoo transmissions he introduced film sound techniques. The presenter, F H Grisewood, no longer had to hold a microphone. A sound technician held a pitchfork with a mike dangling on the end. The mike was poised above the head of the presenter, out of sight of the camera. Philip Dorte said it was better to lose a little ‘close-up’ quality than to bring the mike into view. The pitchfork was changed soon for a bamboo pole. Philip Dorte brought his interests to the fore. Three of the remaining seven outside broadcasts of 1937 were film related. In September, October and November there were ‘behind the scenes’ programmes from Pinewood, Denham and Elstree Film Studios. The Unit also covered an air race from Hatfield, The Lord Mayors Show from Trafalgar Square and the Remembrance Ceremony at the Cenotaph. In December the unit travelled to various places around London to carry out test transmissions from the many outside broadcast venues that would feature in the 1938 schedule. |
BBC Television wanted the unit to cover the Coronation Procession of King George VI in May 1937. The EMI factory at Hayes worked day and night to deliver the unit just a couple of days before the great event. The BBC, in anticipation that many outside broadcasts would come from central London, arranged for a television cable to be laid by the GPO from Alexandra Palace to Broadcasting House and then criss-crossing the West End to Parliament Square. The special balanced-pair cable, designed by EMI and made by Siemens Brothers of Woolwich, was in place just in time for the Coronation broadcast.
The Mobile Control Room (MCR) equipment was a duplicate of that in Studio A, Alexandra Palace. All three vehicles used to house the outside broadcast equipment were on AEC bus chassis, as the AEC factory was just down the road in Southall. In the ‘scanner’, the control units for the three Emitron cameras were placed down one side of the vehicle, with other equipment down the other side, forming a corridor down to the front of the MCR where there were two monitors, one TX and one preview. The picture from the third camera could not be seen until it was put up on the preview monitor.
For the Coronation, only the MCR was needed, as there was mains power and the site chosen at Hyde Park Corner was on the route of the newly laid balanced-pair cable. The transmitter van was also located at Hyde Park corner as back up, but was not needed as, despite the dull and damp weather, the live broadcast of the Coronation Procession, passing through Apsley Gate, went off without a hitch.
The next outside broadcast came from Wimbledon, covering the Tennis Championships and the Davis Cup from the Centre Court. The initial broadcasts from Wimbledon were billed in the Radio Times as 'test transmissions'. The pictures were sent by means of the transmitter van, which relayed the programmes back to a receiving aerial on the top of Alexandra Palace. The generator van was also needed to provide the necessary power. The unit remained at Wimbledon to cover the Davis Cup at the end of July.
The Mobile Control Room (MCR) equipment was a duplicate of that in Studio A, Alexandra Palace. All three vehicles used to house the outside broadcast equipment were on AEC bus chassis, as the AEC factory was just down the road in Southall. In the ‘scanner’, the control units for the three Emitron cameras were placed down one side of the vehicle, with other equipment down the other side, forming a corridor down to the front of the MCR where there were two monitors, one TX and one preview. The picture from the third camera could not be seen until it was put up on the preview monitor.
For the Coronation, only the MCR was needed, as there was mains power and the site chosen at Hyde Park Corner was on the route of the newly laid balanced-pair cable. The transmitter van was also located at Hyde Park corner as back up, but was not needed as, despite the dull and damp weather, the live broadcast of the Coronation Procession, passing through Apsley Gate, went off without a hitch.
The next outside broadcast came from Wimbledon, covering the Tennis Championships and the Davis Cup from the Centre Court. The initial broadcasts from Wimbledon were billed in the Radio Times as 'test transmissions'. The pictures were sent by means of the transmitter van, which relayed the programmes back to a receiving aerial on the top of Alexandra Palace. The generator van was also needed to provide the necessary power. The unit remained at Wimbledon to cover the Davis Cup at the end of July.
The first outside broadcasts of 1938 were a series of short programmes from Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia, starting on Tuesday 4th January and continuing until Saturday. This was probably the first time a Super Emitron was used on an OB. There was only one allocated to the Outside Broadcast Unit. The sensitivity of the new camera was about ten times greater than the Standard Emitron, making it very useful when televising events indoors.
On Friday 28th January 1938, MCR 1 went to HMV’s Abbey Road Studios to bring viewers live pictures and sound of Eddie Carlisle recording his latest song. In June 1967 another BBC outside broadcast unit was parked outside the Abbey Road Studios. MCR 28, the last BBC monochrome control room, was there to show the Beatles perform ‘All You Need is Love’ to viewers around the world. While only a few thousand people would have watched Eddie Carlisle in 1937, an estimated 400 million watched the Beatles Abbey Road performance, which was part of 'Our World', the first big world-wide satellite programme.
Despite transmission tests in advance being made from the various OB locations, the loss of signal when sending radio pictures back to Alexandra Palace still interrupted programmes.
When the engineers were setting up to send back pictures of the Oxford v Cambridge Rugby match from Twickenham, they found there was not a suitable high building on which to put the transmitting aerial. With just 24 hours before transmission, the engineers ordered a 110ft mast to be brought down from Daventry. This was erected in an allotment field next to the stadium in time for the start of the match. This game was the first soccer or rugby match to be televised from start to finish.
Another measure that was taken to improve the radio link between the OB unit and Alexandra Palace was to install a receiving aerial on higher ground. A temporary 75ft high mast was erected at Swain’s Lane, Highgate and connected to Alexandra Palace by a cable. This mast was replaced by a permanent 150ft tower in March 1939, with the original receiving mast being moved to Alexandra Palace as back up.
Many more ‘firsts’ were to come in 1938. The finish of the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race at Mortlake was televised in April. The start and middle of the race were shown on an animated chart in the studio at Alexandra Palace, with the radio commentary by John Snagge.
The BBC’s first OB unit went on to cover many more events including the Ideal Home Exhibition, the FA Cup Final (1st half only), the Chelsea Flower Show, the Derby and Trooping the Colour. It then returned to Wimbledon for the second time to cover the Tennis Championships.
Friday 24th June was the start of a very long relationship between cricket and BBC television. MCR 1 spent four days at Lords cricket ground covering the Second Test Match between England and Australia. Over the next months and years and decades MCR 1’s sister units would return on numerous occasions to cover the different test matches. The long hours required to cover the game must have tested the endurance of the cameramen, engineers and production staff as all the equipment needed constant attention.
BBC engineers brought in new ways and equipment to help make sure the pictures from these new events away from the central London vision cable, got back to Alexandra Palace. For the Polo at Hurlingham in Fulham, the horse racing from Northolt and the Test Match from Lords, the BBC borrowed an ex fire brigade extending ladder from Merryweather and Sons to get the transmitting aerial as high as possible. Where the OB was just a mile or so from the London vision cable, the BBC and GPO designed equipment that allowed the pictures to be sent down an ordinary telephone cable. This technique was used for the Chelsea Flower Show, a broadcast from The Movietone news HQ in Soho Square and eventually Olympia, where several repeaters were needed due to the distance from the permanent vision cable.
By the beginning of 1938 the BBC knew it needed a second television outside broadcast unit. The first unit was becoming increasingly busy. Normally it would take 48 hours to set up a three-camera OB but at the beginning of April that was cut to 29 hours between the Boxing at Harringey and the England v Scotland soccer match at Wembley on Saturday afternoon. So an order was placed with the Marconi-EMI Company for a second unit identical to the first. The BBC also ordered a purpose built extending ladder vehicle from Merryweather that could reach 80ft and also had compartments to carry the aerial equipment.
The Aerial Ladder arrived in time to help get pictures back from the August Bank Holiday fun fair at Croydon on Monday 1st August. MCR 2 and it’s associated vehicles were delivered in time to cover the Third Test Match at the Oval at the end of August which allowed the first unit to cover the variety acts that the BBC put on in a specially built studio at Radiolympia. While previously visitors could only see programmes at Olympia that were made at Alexandra Palace or relayed from the OB at London Zoo, now visitors could actually watch live television being made.
Perhaps the most significant Television Outside Broadcast of 1938 happened on Friday 30th September at Heston Aerodrome. It was here that Prime Minster, Neville Chamberlain, made his famous ‘Peace with Hitler’ speech on returning from Berlin. The BBC’s MCR 1 and transmitter vans were there to relay the message to an anxious audience. This broadcast was not listed in the Radio Times. It was a last minute event that was the first time a BBC outside broadcast unit had been used to cover a news story.
The two OB units were busy through the autumn and winter returning to old favourites like the Lord Mayors Show, Rugby from Twickenham, the Remembrance Ceremony from Whitehall and Bertram Mills Circus which this time had the benefit of three Super Emitrons to televise the indoor event.
Perhaps one of the most significant broadcasts was on 16th November when the BBC made its first venture into The West End to televise part of a J B Priestly play. Many plays and musicals had been staged in the studios at Alexandra Palace, but this was the first time television had gone to the theatre. St Martins was the first theatre to allow a live transmission. One camera was in the foyer to capture the atmosphere of the audience arriving. The second was backstage to interview the performers and the third was in a box in the auditorium to televise the first part of the play ’When we are Married’. Over the coming months the BBC OB trucks would come back to the West End to show performances at Drury Lane, The Coliseum and the Palace Theatre. On March 27th 1939 there was another first. Philip Dorte sat on a shooting stick while directing the three-hour musical ‘Magyar Melody’ from Her Majesty’s Theatre. Prior to that, the producer/director and engineers all stood in the MCR while carrying out their tasks.
The 1939 Oxford v Cambridge Boat race was the first occasion that both MCRs were used at the same event. Three cameras covered the start at Putney, with the second three-camera unit at Mortlake to cover the finish. The programme was co-ordinated in the studio at Alexandra Palace, where an animated map of the course was used to illustrate the middle of the race with help from the radio commentary of John Snagge.
One reason given why the two units had not been used together before was that the two transmitter vans used the same radio frequency and would therefore interfere with each other. The solution for the Boat Race was for the Putney MCR to send its pictures via telephone cable, then the permanent central London vision cable to Alexandra Palace. The pictures from the finish were sent by the transmitter van.
A Royal Visit to Canada created the next opportunity to use both MCRs. On 3rd May the King’s journey from Buckingham Palace to Waterloo Station was televised, with one unit outside the Palace and the second at Waterloo.
While sport and state occasions were the staple diet of television outside broadcasts, the BBC TV OB division under the direction of Philip Dorte continued to explore different programme ideas. In 1939 there were monthly visits to a farm to find out what work was being done through the seasons. There was a broadcast from Imber Court where the Metropolitan Police trained their horses and a visit to the pond in Kensington Gardens to watch model boat builders sail their craft.
On Sunday 2nd July, in between the tennis from Wimbledon and the test cricket from Lords, there was a broadcast from Hyde Park that was perhaps a foretaste of what was to come in the next six years. The hour-long broadcast saw the King take the salute at Grosvenor Gate as detachments from the army, navy, air force and members of the home defence forces marched through the Park.
Two months later on Friday 1st September during the week of regular broadcasts from Radiolympia, television suddenly closed down as war was declared on Germany. The Outside Broadcast vehicles were stripped of their equipment and the lorries used to help the transport needs of the Second World War. The MCRs would not see service again with the BBC until the Victory Parade down Whitehall on 8th June 1946.
On Friday 28th January 1938, MCR 1 went to HMV’s Abbey Road Studios to bring viewers live pictures and sound of Eddie Carlisle recording his latest song. In June 1967 another BBC outside broadcast unit was parked outside the Abbey Road Studios. MCR 28, the last BBC monochrome control room, was there to show the Beatles perform ‘All You Need is Love’ to viewers around the world. While only a few thousand people would have watched Eddie Carlisle in 1937, an estimated 400 million watched the Beatles Abbey Road performance, which was part of 'Our World', the first big world-wide satellite programme.
Despite transmission tests in advance being made from the various OB locations, the loss of signal when sending radio pictures back to Alexandra Palace still interrupted programmes.
When the engineers were setting up to send back pictures of the Oxford v Cambridge Rugby match from Twickenham, they found there was not a suitable high building on which to put the transmitting aerial. With just 24 hours before transmission, the engineers ordered a 110ft mast to be brought down from Daventry. This was erected in an allotment field next to the stadium in time for the start of the match. This game was the first soccer or rugby match to be televised from start to finish.
Another measure that was taken to improve the radio link between the OB unit and Alexandra Palace was to install a receiving aerial on higher ground. A temporary 75ft high mast was erected at Swain’s Lane, Highgate and connected to Alexandra Palace by a cable. This mast was replaced by a permanent 150ft tower in March 1939, with the original receiving mast being moved to Alexandra Palace as back up.
Many more ‘firsts’ were to come in 1938. The finish of the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race at Mortlake was televised in April. The start and middle of the race were shown on an animated chart in the studio at Alexandra Palace, with the radio commentary by John Snagge.
The BBC’s first OB unit went on to cover many more events including the Ideal Home Exhibition, the FA Cup Final (1st half only), the Chelsea Flower Show, the Derby and Trooping the Colour. It then returned to Wimbledon for the second time to cover the Tennis Championships.
Friday 24th June was the start of a very long relationship between cricket and BBC television. MCR 1 spent four days at Lords cricket ground covering the Second Test Match between England and Australia. Over the next months and years and decades MCR 1’s sister units would return on numerous occasions to cover the different test matches. The long hours required to cover the game must have tested the endurance of the cameramen, engineers and production staff as all the equipment needed constant attention.
BBC engineers brought in new ways and equipment to help make sure the pictures from these new events away from the central London vision cable, got back to Alexandra Palace. For the Polo at Hurlingham in Fulham, the horse racing from Northolt and the Test Match from Lords, the BBC borrowed an ex fire brigade extending ladder from Merryweather and Sons to get the transmitting aerial as high as possible. Where the OB was just a mile or so from the London vision cable, the BBC and GPO designed equipment that allowed the pictures to be sent down an ordinary telephone cable. This technique was used for the Chelsea Flower Show, a broadcast from The Movietone news HQ in Soho Square and eventually Olympia, where several repeaters were needed due to the distance from the permanent vision cable.
By the beginning of 1938 the BBC knew it needed a second television outside broadcast unit. The first unit was becoming increasingly busy. Normally it would take 48 hours to set up a three-camera OB but at the beginning of April that was cut to 29 hours between the Boxing at Harringey and the England v Scotland soccer match at Wembley on Saturday afternoon. So an order was placed with the Marconi-EMI Company for a second unit identical to the first. The BBC also ordered a purpose built extending ladder vehicle from Merryweather that could reach 80ft and also had compartments to carry the aerial equipment.
The Aerial Ladder arrived in time to help get pictures back from the August Bank Holiday fun fair at Croydon on Monday 1st August. MCR 2 and it’s associated vehicles were delivered in time to cover the Third Test Match at the Oval at the end of August which allowed the first unit to cover the variety acts that the BBC put on in a specially built studio at Radiolympia. While previously visitors could only see programmes at Olympia that were made at Alexandra Palace or relayed from the OB at London Zoo, now visitors could actually watch live television being made.
Perhaps the most significant Television Outside Broadcast of 1938 happened on Friday 30th September at Heston Aerodrome. It was here that Prime Minster, Neville Chamberlain, made his famous ‘Peace with Hitler’ speech on returning from Berlin. The BBC’s MCR 1 and transmitter vans were there to relay the message to an anxious audience. This broadcast was not listed in the Radio Times. It was a last minute event that was the first time a BBC outside broadcast unit had been used to cover a news story.
The two OB units were busy through the autumn and winter returning to old favourites like the Lord Mayors Show, Rugby from Twickenham, the Remembrance Ceremony from Whitehall and Bertram Mills Circus which this time had the benefit of three Super Emitrons to televise the indoor event.
Perhaps one of the most significant broadcasts was on 16th November when the BBC made its first venture into The West End to televise part of a J B Priestly play. Many plays and musicals had been staged in the studios at Alexandra Palace, but this was the first time television had gone to the theatre. St Martins was the first theatre to allow a live transmission. One camera was in the foyer to capture the atmosphere of the audience arriving. The second was backstage to interview the performers and the third was in a box in the auditorium to televise the first part of the play ’When we are Married’. Over the coming months the BBC OB trucks would come back to the West End to show performances at Drury Lane, The Coliseum and the Palace Theatre. On March 27th 1939 there was another first. Philip Dorte sat on a shooting stick while directing the three-hour musical ‘Magyar Melody’ from Her Majesty’s Theatre. Prior to that, the producer/director and engineers all stood in the MCR while carrying out their tasks.
The 1939 Oxford v Cambridge Boat race was the first occasion that both MCRs were used at the same event. Three cameras covered the start at Putney, with the second three-camera unit at Mortlake to cover the finish. The programme was co-ordinated in the studio at Alexandra Palace, where an animated map of the course was used to illustrate the middle of the race with help from the radio commentary of John Snagge.
One reason given why the two units had not been used together before was that the two transmitter vans used the same radio frequency and would therefore interfere with each other. The solution for the Boat Race was for the Putney MCR to send its pictures via telephone cable, then the permanent central London vision cable to Alexandra Palace. The pictures from the finish were sent by the transmitter van.
A Royal Visit to Canada created the next opportunity to use both MCRs. On 3rd May the King’s journey from Buckingham Palace to Waterloo Station was televised, with one unit outside the Palace and the second at Waterloo.
While sport and state occasions were the staple diet of television outside broadcasts, the BBC TV OB division under the direction of Philip Dorte continued to explore different programme ideas. In 1939 there were monthly visits to a farm to find out what work was being done through the seasons. There was a broadcast from Imber Court where the Metropolitan Police trained their horses and a visit to the pond in Kensington Gardens to watch model boat builders sail their craft.
On Sunday 2nd July, in between the tennis from Wimbledon and the test cricket from Lords, there was a broadcast from Hyde Park that was perhaps a foretaste of what was to come in the next six years. The hour-long broadcast saw the King take the salute at Grosvenor Gate as detachments from the army, navy, air force and members of the home defence forces marched through the Park.
Two months later on Friday 1st September during the week of regular broadcasts from Radiolympia, television suddenly closed down as war was declared on Germany. The Outside Broadcast vehicles were stripped of their equipment and the lorries used to help the transport needs of the Second World War. The MCRs would not see service again with the BBC until the Victory Parade down Whitehall on 8th June 1946.
