This is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain, 1922-2022 by Simon J. Potter

Author:Simon J. Potter [Potter, Simon J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192653659
Publisher: OxfordUP
Published: 2022-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

BBC2

The UK’s third national television network, BBC2, was due to launch on 20 April 1964: however, a power outage across much of London that evening closed Television Centre and delayed the grand opening until the next day. Nevertheless, for the BBC the new network was a mark of its ‘confident maturity’, coming at a time when it was more than holding its own against its commercial competitors.12 The opening night line-up included a satirical review of the history of British broadcasting and a 90-minute production of Kiss Me Kate, all done ‘without flaw and with serious panache’.13 BBC2 went on to broadcast the first colour programming in Britain, on 1 July 1967, with coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships: ‘It was a Wimbledon no one has ever seen on television before. The clothes of the players were whiter than white, the Centre Court an inimitable green.’14 On 2 December 1967 it became the first network in Europe to begin broadcasting regularly in colour.

The launch of BBC2 created new opportunities to use television as a medium of information and education. BBC1 (which switched to colour on 15 November 1969) could now focus on competing with ITV, providing plenty of light entertainment and leaving BBC2 free to do something different. ‘Serious’ programming was a priority for the network’s first controller, Michael Peacock (1964–65) and also for his successor, David Attenborough (1965–69). Under their stewardship, documentary production expanded. A key element in BBC2’s initial offering was The Great War (1964), a co-production with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the First World War. This ambitious 26-part series was narrated by Michael Redgrave and included readings by leading actors, but also reflected growing contemporary interest in oral history and ‘history from below’. It drew extensively on footage of interviews with surviving war veterans.

A more patrician perspective on the past was taken by Civilisation (1969), a thirteen-part history of Western art and thought since the Middle Ages, written and presented by Sir Kenneth Clark. Sumptuously produced in colour and shot on over a hundred locations around the world, the series took three years to make. Civilisation offered a Eurocentric, male-dominated perspective on art history: three years later John Berger and Mike Dibb made a response, Ways of Seeing (BBC2, 1972), focusing on the ideologies underpinning art and representation. Despite such reservations, Civilisation paved the way for a succession of prestige factual television series, including The Ascent of Man (1973) and The Shock of the New (1980). As controller of BBC2, Attenborough ensured that wildlife television was also a key aspect of the channel’s output, notably with the natural history documentary series The World About Us (1967–87).

BBC2 also broadcast ‘serious’ drama, including a milestone production of I, Claudius (1976), adapted from the novels of Robert Graves and starring Derek Jacobi. Another new approach to arts television was offered by Late Night Line-Up (1964–72), presented by Denis Tuohy and Joan Bakewell. A talk show with

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