SUBLIME 60s
ELECTRIC 80s
The 1966 Fifa World Cup final, quite probably the biggest event in English sporting history, was broadcast live on 30 July. The BBC and ITV combined their resources to ensure the whole competition was covered in detail, and the final attracted the largest ever British television audience, as 32.3 million viewers watched England win against West Germany. BBC Two become the first colour channel in Europe in 1967. Although unpublished programmes in colour could be watched as early as 1966, a full-colour service was not launched until coverage of the 1967 Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships began. Colour was extended to BBC One and ITV by 1969. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two humans to set foot on the moon – and were also seen in the first all-night continuous coverage of any live event in the UK. The BBC and ITV shared limited satellite facilities to get the historic images live from the lunar surface to an estimated 22 million UK viewers.
SUPER 70s
In a landscape of rapid technological advancements, demand arose for a television show that could explain home PCs. The BBC Micro Model A computer was quickly adopted in schools and homes, but users needed support. Each edition of The Computer Programme began with a real-life situation where computers could be applied. Global viewing records were broken when 750 million tuned into the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981. The BBC was at the heart of one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and TV broadcasts of all time for Live Aid in 1985, with an estimated 400 million viewers across 60 countries watching the live coverage.
In 1974, Ceefax – or Teletext – was developed by BBC engineers who exploited the unused capacity of the 625-line television signal to send text information and display basic images. The service received a boost when gaps in the television schedule were filled with a selection of Ceefax pages accompanied by music. Eventually, it had 22 million weekly users.
ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE BEGIN
EXTERMINATE A Dalek from the long-running BBC show Doctor Who
The first episode of Doctor Who aired on 23 November 1963 and the cover of the Radio Times that week announced it as ‘a new Saturday afternoon television series of adventures in time and space.’ Its iconic theme tune was realised by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, created in part by pointing an electronic TV camera at its own image, which generated a swirling visual ‘howlaround’ effect. In 2017, Jodie Whittaker took on the role of the 13th Doctor, the first woman to do so. The BBC confirmed in May 2022 that Ncuti Gatwa would star as the 15th Doctor on the show, making him the first black actor to portray the titular role.
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