Armchair Nation (64 page)

20
. Burns,
British Television
, p. 160; James Harding, ‘George Robey',
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, online edition.

21
. Dicky Howett,
Television Innovations: 50 Technological Developments
(Tiverton: Kelly, 2006), p. 81;
The Race for Television
, Episode 2, Granada/ITV, 19 February 1985; Bruce Norman,
Here's Looking at You: The Story of British Television 1908–1939
(London: BBC/Royal Television Society, 1984), p. 73.

22
. Aldous Huxley,
Brave New World
(London: Vintage, 2007), pp. 174–6; Nicholas Murray,
Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual
(London: Little, Brown, 2002), p. 432.

23
. Ian McEwan, ‘A medium of no importance',
Observer
, 31 July 1983.

24
. Gordon Ross,
Television Jubilee: The Story of 25 Years of B.B.C. Television
(London: W. H. Allen, 1961), p. 25; Norman,
Here's Looking at You
, p. 90.

25
. ‘Experiments in television',
Observer
, 23 February 1936; Donald F. McLean,
Restoring Baird's Image
(London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2000), pp. xvi–xvii.

26
. John Trenouth, ‘Foreword', in McLean,
Restoring Baird's Image
, pp. xii–xiii.

27
. Ross,
Television Jubilee
, p. 26; ‘B.B.C. television troubles',
Daily Express
, 19 February 1934.

28
. ‘Seeing-in',
Manchester Guardian
, 16 May 1934.

29
. Kingsley Wood, ‘The Television Report: broadcast by the Postmaster-General on 31 January',
Listener
, 6 February 1935, 248; Leonard Miall,
Inside the BBC: British Broadcasting Characters
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994), p. 22; Burgess, ‘An old man', p. 23.

30
. ‘What's in a name? £5 5s',
Daily Express
, 6 February 1935; Burns,
British Television
, p. 353.

31
. Norman,
Here's Looking at You
, p. 109.

32
. THB, ‘Television and the Heaviside Layer',
Journal of the Television Society
, 1 (January 1931), p. 31.

33
. ‘Television “Adonis” found!',
Daily Mail
, 22 May 1936; Kenneth Baily,
Here's Television
(London: Vox Mundi, 1950), p. 7.

34
. ‘The arrival of television',
Observer
, 30 August 1936.

35
. Robert Charles Alexander,
The Inventor of Stereo: The Life and Works of Alan Dower Blumlein
(Oxford: Focal Press, 1999), pp. 191–2.

36
. ‘Films televised to 'plane 4,000ft. up',
Daily Mirror
, 5 September 1936.

37
. Norman,
Here's Looking at You
, p. 120.

38
. L. Marsland Gander, ‘BBC television handicaps',
Daily Telegraph
, 24 November 1936.

39
. L. Marsland Gander, ‘
Picture Page
from both sides of the television screen',
Radio Times
, 13 January 1939, 6.

40
. ‘Appeal to owners of television sets',
Journal of the Television Society
, 2, 6 (December 1936), 219; Listener Research Section, ‘Viewers and the television service, a report of an investigation of viewers' opinions in January 1937', 5 February 1937, BBC WAC, R9/9/1.

41
. ‘Television for the deaf – an experiment',
Journal of the Television Society
, 2, 8 (June 1937), 273.

42
. ‘What the viewers are saying',
Radio Times Television Supplement
, 26 March 1937, 5; Bernard Buckham, ‘Television is no longer a novelty',
Daily Mirror
, 3 June 1937; Michael Barry,
From the Palace to the Grove
(London: Royal Television Society, 1992), p. 7.

43
. Rene Cutforth, ‘Fifty years of broadcasting, part four: television',
Listener
, 2 November 1972, 586.

44
. ‘The future of television',
Observer
, 23 May 1937; ‘Television to-day',
BBC Handbook, 1938
(London: BBC, 1938), pp. 40, 42.

45
. ‘Television: Centre Court',
Listener
, 30 June 1937, 1297.

46
. The Scanner, ‘Big guns at the Palace',
Radio Times
, 4 November 1938, 17.

47
. Jonah Barrington, ‘Perfect television for two minutes',
Daily Express
, 13 November 1937.

48
. ‘Television boys show off their new lift',
Daily Express
, 18 February 1937; Jonah Barrington, ‘Readers travel from as far as Land's End to see television',
Daily Express
, 17 August 1937; Jonah Barrington,
And Master of None
(London: W. Edwards, 1948), pp. 189–90.

49
. ‘Two years of television',
The Times
, 23 December 1938.

50
. P. H., ‘And this is how two reporters saw it',
Daily Express
, 24 February 1939.

51
. Alan Hunter, ‘Television is for the home',
Radio Times
, 10 February 1939, 10.

52
. ‘Phone “sees” man 106 miles away',
Daily Express
, 24 December 1938.

53
. Morley interviewed in
Imagine: And Then There Was Television
, BBC1, 21 December 2006; Kate Dunn,
Do Not Adjust Your Set: The Early Days of Live Television
(London: John Murray, 2003), p. 27.

54
. ‘In praise of television',
Journal of the Television Society
, 3, 2 (1939), 49–50.

55
. Bruce Forsyth,
Bruce: The Autobiography
(London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 2001), p. 3; Hermione Lee,
Virginia Woolf
(London: Vintage, 1997), p. 667.

56
. Nigel Nicolson (ed.),
The Harold Nicolson Diaries 1907–1963
(London: Phoenix, 2005), pp. 182–3.

57
. Ross McKibbin,
Classes and Cultures: England, 1918–1951
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 15; ‘Individual approach',
Listener
, 11 May 1939, 1015.

58
. The Scanner, ‘Club for television viewers?',
Radio Times
, 3 February 1939, 13; The Scanner, ‘Au revoir to the king',
Radio Times
, 28 April 1939, 13.

59
. ‘Mr. Boar goes in for television',
Radio Times
, 24 February 1939, 6.

60
. Baily,
Here's Television
, p. 18; The Scanner, ‘Television is grand!',
Radio Times
, 7 July 1939, 18.

61
. ‘Views of viewers heard by the BBC',
The Times
, 27 June 1939.

62
. Paddy Scannell, ‘Public service broadcasting and modern life', in
Culture and Power: A Media, Culture & Society Reader
, eds Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1992), p. 330; Grace Wyndham Goldie, ‘Television tea-party',
Listener
, 29 June 1939, 1368.

63
. Ernest C. Thomson, ‘Au revoir, television', in
BBC Handbook, 1940
(London: BBC, 1940), p. 53.

64
. The Scanner, ‘Television can take it!',
Radio Times
, 1 September 1939, 15.

65
. ‘Electrical and Musical Industries: television progress',
Observer
, 10 December 1939.

66
. Thomson, ‘Au revoir, television', p. 58.

1
. Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley (eds),
The Noel Coward Diaries
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982), p. 77.

2
. Patricia and Robert Malcolmson (eds),
Nella Last's Peace: The Postwar Diaries of Housewife, 49
(London: Profile, 2008), p. 31; ‘Television service',
BBC Yearbook, 1947
(London: BBC, 1947), p. 77.

3
.
Imagine: And Then There Was Television
, BBC1, 21 December 2006; Peter Sallis,
Fading into the Limelight
(London: Orion, 2006), p. 14.

4
. Fay Schlesinger, ‘Still in good working order, the television set made in 1936',
Daily Mail
, 20 July 2009; Anthony Kamm and Malcolm Baird,
John Logie Baird: A Life
(Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 2002), pp. 363–4.

5
. ‘Case for television',
The Times
, 6 March 1947; Simon Garfield,
Our Hidden Lives: The Everyday Diaries of a Forgotten Britain 1945–1948
(London: Ebury Press, 2004), p. 477.

6
. Richard Haynes, ‘The BBC, austerity and broadcasting the 1948 Olympic Games',
International Journal of the History of Sport
, 27, 6 (April 2010), 1042–3.

7
. Listener Research Department, ‘Television: the “Viewers' Vote” scheme', 17 June 1948, BBC WAC, LT/48/1047; ‘Television tastes',
Manchester Guardian
, 14 December 1950; Listener Research Department, ‘Television: some points about the audience', BBC WAC, LT/48/1219.

8
. Listener Research Department, ‘Television Enquiry 1948, part 4, viewing', BBC WAC, LR/49/1260;
Mass-Observation's Panel on Television
, April 1949, MOA, File Report 3106, p. 5.

9
. John Swift,
Adventures in Vision: The First Twenty-Five Years of Television
(London: John Lehmann, 1950), p. 132; Bob Phillips,
The 1948 Olympics: How London Rescued the Games
(Cheltenham: SportsBooks, 2007), p. xii.

10
. Harold Hobson, ‘The problem of personality',
Listener
, 1 June 1950, 962.

11
. Leslie Hardern,
TV Inventors' Club
(London: Rockcliff, 1954), pp. 156–8.

12
. ‘Something for everybody?',
Manchester Guardian
, 17 September 1954; Joan Bush, ‘What's your gadget?',
Picture Post
, 5 September 1953, 33; Hardern,
TV Inventors' Club
, p. 138.

13
. Mike Ashley,
Starlight Man: The Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood
(London: Constable, 2001), pp. 324–6, 334.

14
. ‘The dandy comes back to W.1',
Picture Post
, 7 June 1952, 28; Graham McCann,
Bounder! The Biography of Terry-Thomas
(London: Aurum, 2008), pp. 58, 60–62.

15
. Su Holmes,
Entertaining Television: The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), p. 83.

16
. ‘Lord Reith in conversation with Malcolm Muggeridge – part two',
Listener
, 7 December 1967, 744; C. A. Lejeune, ‘Television',
Observer
, 31 December 1950.

17
. ‘“Television mast a hazard” to planes',
Manchester Guardian
, 16 December 1949.

18
. ‘Television for 6,000,000 more',
Manchester Guardian
, 14 December 1949; Norman Collins, ‘This thing called television',
Radio Times
, 9 December 1949, 6.

19
. Kenneth Baily,
Here's Television
(London: Vox Mundi, 1950), p. 67; Norman Collins, ‘Preface: Getting to know the place', in
London Belongs to Me
(London: Collins, 1945), p. 8.

20
. Leonard Marsland Gander,
Television for All
(London: Alba Books, 1950), p. 39.

21
. Collins, ‘This thing called television', 6.

22
. T. S. Eliot, ‘The television habit',
The Times
, 20 December 1950; Norman Collins, ‘Anxiety typical of every age',
The Times
, 23 December 1950.

23
. ‘Television's new venture',
Manchester Guardian
, 19 December 1949.

24
. ‘Wariness about television',
Manchester Guardian
, 20 December 1949.

25
. ‘Television's new station',
Manchester Guardian
, 19 December 1949; ‘TV dealers brought from bed by rush to buy sets',
Daily Mirror
, 19 December 1949.

26
. Steven Barnett,
Games and Sets: The Changing Face of Sport on Television
(London: BFI, 1990), p. 12; ‘The fans hunted TV aerials',
Daily Mirror
, 26 September 1951.

27
. Fyfe Robertson, ‘We were wrong about television',
Picture Post
, 10 February 1951, 24.

28
. ‘A Wellsian world in the heart of the hills',
Manchester Guardian
, 11 October 1951.

29
. Leonard Mosley, ‘I've run into TV's top fans',
Daily Express
, 30 October 1951; Leonard Mosley, ‘A fig for crooning cockneys!',
Daily Express
, 10 October 1951.

30
. ‘Professor and the “tangible terror”',
Daily Mirror
, 26 January 1952; ‘“Tangible terror” of television: a warning to Scotland',
Manchester Guardian
, 26 January 1952; Robert Armstrong, ‘Kirk O'Shotts',
TV Mirror
, 1 May 1954, 21.

31
. Hansard, HC Deb, 30 July 1949, vol. 467, col. 2940.

32
. David Kynaston,
Austerity Britain 1945–51
(London: Bloomsbury, 2007), p. 585; ‘Fascinating possibilities of TV medium',
Glasgow Herald
, 14 March 1952.

33
. ‘Television comes to Scotland',
Glasgow Herald
, 15 March 1952; David Pat Walker,
The BBC in Scotland: The First Fifty Years
(Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2011), p. 188; ‘Excellent reception',
Glasgow Herald
, 15 March 1952.

34
. Richard Whiteley,
Himoff! The Memoirs of a TV Matinée Idle
(London: Orion, 2000), p. 12.