I used to really enjoy doing vocal sessions in the recording studio at Lime Grove for shows like The Russ Abbott Show and The Laughter Show to name but two. The Irish guys that ran the bar also did a pint of Guinness so good that I first thought they were bringing in in from Dublin but, no, it was just Park Royal Guinness kept and served correctly.
Yes, live on air, to those lucky few who spent a fortune in upgrading their aerial and TV set to get BBC 2 and only then those living in London and the south east
The Ally Pally studios in 1964 weren't great, as BBC Television Centre was their big HQ but of course without power Ally Pally had to cope, and they did the best they could, but their equipment was not great
tenbys gone down the pan you cannot get a taxi, the railway station is unmanned we are not going again my wifes disabled and the taxi drivers prefer to do a school run rather than help someone who is disabled , dog mess everywhere as they allow dogs everywhere sorry but i tell it as it is
0:50 - I met Denis Murray many times over the years. What a lovely man he was. His voice was so familiar not just to Northern Irish viewers, but also to the rest of us on the national news. A great journalist, in the same way as John Cole was too. Denis is still alive and enjoying retirement aged currently 72.
10:15 - also in 1964 no shops were open on a Sunday in Britain. Only smaller corner shops and newsagents would be open. More draconian was Northern Ireland, where unlike England, no cinemas or bars were allowed open there until the late 1980s. Only in 1994 did Sunday trading for big stores was allowed.
10:15 - This archaic view of Sunday was the reason why both BBC and ITV were regulated to always air a Sunday morning live church service, a lot of adult educational programming and 70 minutes of closed programming from 6.15pm to 7.25pm where only religious programming could air on television. Added to that, the regulation that "general entertainment should not start before 3pm, but 2.30pm at the earliest was allowed. Given the fact that BBC and ITV were allowed just 7.5 hours of general entertainment on a Sunday, these ancient ideas of Sunday was still in force in 1964 Britain.
The telephone on the newsdesk was needed, as in 1964 there wasn't any ear pieces for news presenters to use to connect to the gallery. That would come in during the 1970s.
There had been months of advertising, including the use/sale of two 'cartoon' characters - Hullabaloo and Custard. These were a kangaroo (Hullabaloo) with a joey (Custard) in her pouch. Despite this, the BBC got more news coverage for the new channel from its failure to start. BBC was the first national channel to broadcast in 625 lines, rather than the 405 lines that had been used previously so was in a higher definition, although still transmitting in monochrome. One of the programmes planned for the launch evening was a firework display from Southend Pier which, to me, was strange because a colourful display could only be seen in black and white! They just shifted the launch programme schedule to the following evening.
Most certainly not - remember this bulletin was produced in the newsroom using a 625 line camera. The main BBC Television news studio was using a 405 line camera, and was based in a separate studio, adjacent to the newsroom, so you never saw the news staff in vision.
BBC and ITV sold many TV shows around the world. I am surprised that not more lost gems have not been recovered. As places like Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and even our close next door neighbour Ireland bought a lot of UK shows to fill their own stations.
Nearly as bad as the opening of RTE2 in Ireland. They were seeing the countdown of the launch of a second channel but the audio was from BBC 2 and some punk rock band on the Old Grey Whistle Test - way to go RTE!
Apart from the lack of dinner jacket, this absolutely has to be the inspiration for John Cleese's newsreader in Monty Python. The delivery and mannerisms are spot on!
What an absolute gem! Such simple clean professionlism, and so spontaneous. Personally, I would quite happily watch news delivered like this now. All this excessive presentation with massively overpaid presenters is utterly unnecessary. If only the BBC could go back to their core raison d'etre.
