�� Genome Blog Feed

Broadcasting business...

2017-10-02T15:57:57+00:00

Lord Sugar appeared in an EastEnders sketch for Children in Need 2012

�� One’s The Apprentice is back for its 13th series tonight. We look back at a range of business-focused programmes that have made the schedules on TV and radio.

Broadcasting has long shown an interest in business and entrepreneurship. Early radio listings include titles reflecting concerns that wouldn’t sound out of place in today’s schedules, such as “Individuality in Business” and “Business Efficiency”. In 1969 an episode of Chief Executive explored the world of high finance when broadcaster Chris Basher, (who had a varied career including as a pacemaker when Roger Bannister ran the first 4-minute mile), interviewed financier Jim Slater about his career.

While early listings show a factual and analytical approach to business programming, entertainment value has increasingly played an important role. With The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den, the mid-2000’s saw the launch of a new brand of business programmes which leant on reality and game show TV formats.

How many of the Dragons from the first series can you remember?

Dragons’ Den first appeared on our screens in January 2005. Presented by Evan Davis, the premise for the programme was for budding entrepreneurs to pitch their business plan to a group of multimillionaires (nicknamed The Dragons) in the hope of gaining investment. The show was a big success and was given a glowing preview ahead of a new series in this 2007 listing. The investors have changed in the intervening years and there have now been 17 different dragons - with Peter Jones the only survivor from the starting line-up. Jones’ most famous Dragons' Den investment was in Levi Roots, who came singing into the den before winning an investment in his cooking sauces. It was such a popular pitch that it was included in this listing for a 2007 Christmas special looking back at the show’s most memorable moments.

The Apprentice was based on a successful US programme starring Donald Trump; the first episode of the UK version broadcast on the 16th February 2005. Described in the listing as “a gruelling 12-week test of stamina, intelligence and ruthlessness”, candidates compete in a series of business related tasks to determine a winner. Lord Sugar was cast as the prospective employer (and later, partner) after the �� beat Channel 4 to the UK rights for the programme. The first series was won by Tim Campbell who won a job working for Alan Sugar, while losing finalist Saira Khan went on to launch a successful media career and has numerous �� Genome listings.

The first two series of The Apprentice were on �� Two before moving over to �� One in 2007 and while early series were broadcast in the spring, in 2010 it had to be delayed as it clashed with that year’s general election. Although it subsequently reverted to a spring slot in the schedules, every series since 2014 has been in the autumn.

Levi Roots went on to present Caribbean Food Made Easy for the �� in 2009

The sign of a successful show can often be judged in how many spin-off shows it spawns. There have been three series of Young/Junior Apprentice and also some celebrity versions tied into both Comic Relief and Sports Relief. The 2007 Comic Relief special saw teams of male and female celebrities compete to see who could raise the most money for charity. The female side was led by Baroness Brady, who would later go on to work on the main show as an adviser to Lord Sugar. The losing male side was captained by Alastair Campbell, yet it was Piers Morgan who was sacked in the second episode aired as part of the main Comic Relief show that Friday night. Morgan later went on to to win a US celebrity version.

Sister shows running alongside the main programme became very fashionable during the mid-noughties with Big Brother’s Little Brother on Channel 4 and Strictly Come Dancing - It Takes Two on the �� acting as trailblazers, The Apprentice has The Apprentice – You’re Fired. Initially presented by Adrian Chiles, the 2006 series aired on �� Three before switching to ��2 from the 2007 series onwards. The show reviews that week’s programme and interviews the recently fired candidate.

Prior to hosting You’re Fired Chiles had presented lunchtime business magazine programme Working Lunch from its launch in 1994. Working Lunch, which covered financial news and topics, stopped in 2010 but not before introducing future �� Breakfast host Naga Munchetty to �� screens.

Declan Curry and Naga Munchetty on the set of Working Lunch

Another 90s business programme was Troubleshooter, where successful businessman Sir John Harvey-Jones would visit and advise smaller struggling businesses. Despite winning a Bafta, Troubleshooter only ran for three years before Harvey-Jones stood down from the programme. The listings reflect that the format has been replicated in subsequent programmes. In 2004 Sir Gerry Robinson took on the Harvey-Jones role in I'll Show Them Who's Boss and Mary Portas looked at how to improve fashion boutiques in her Mary, Queen of Shops series which first broadcast in 2007.

Sir John Harvey-Jones in a 1992 episode of Troubleshooter

The Money Programme was a cornerstone of �� schedules for 44 years. First shown on 5 April 1966 the producer Terry Hughes wrote in that week’s Radio Times that The Money Programme “will comment on the issues and broaden the whole field of business and economic life”. Initially a magazine programme, the format changed over the years and for the last 10 years it focused on one-off documentaries, such as this 2009 listing for an episode entitled The Rise Of The Superchef.

Ahead of the first episode The Money Programme producer Terry Hughes wrote an article in that week’s Radio Times

While the earliest business programmes may have focused solely on informing their audiences, nowadays much attention is spent on entertainment value. This 2009 �� Radio 5 Live listing used the phrase “Irreverent and off-beat” to describe a business programme, while The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den go from strength to strength. However, any entrepreneur who enters either the Apprentice boardroom or the Dragons’ Den without an accurate analysis of their business plan will almost certainly get their fingers burnt.

Do you have any favourite programmes that we haven't covered? Let us know in the comments form below...

Face to Faith (...Moss, Waugh, Sitwell, Russell and Jung)

2017-03-22T13:24:13+00:00

Pop star Adam Faith was a controversial choice for the interview series, as he was only 20 when questioned by John Freeman in December 1960

The �� has released six more interviews from the classic Face to Face series as part of the ��4 Talks collection on iPlayer.

Face to Face was first transmitted between 1959 and 1962. John Freeman's encounters with Adam Faith, Stirling Moss, Evelyn Waugh, Dame Edith Sitwell, Bertrand Russell and Carl Jung are now available online on iPlayer.

�� Genome has listings for all the Face to Face interviews, and links through to the episodes of the programme that are available to watch - you can also read the billings for those that have not yet been released. There is something for everyone in this newly released collection, which includes subjects from the worlds of pop, poetry and literature, science and sport.

John Freeman was a master of the incisive interview, cross-examining leading personalities of the day. He had been an MP, and joined the Panorama team when it was relaunched in 1955. During his stint as interviewer on Face to Face he became editor of The New Statesman, and was later appointed an ambassador.

Adam Faith’s Face to Face interview was recorded in 1960, when he was a heartthrob teen idol in the first flush of fame. Faith became a pop sensation overnight, when his song 'What Do You Want?' reached number one in the charts the year before. He was the only pop singer to be interviewed by John Freeman for the series.

John Freeman interviewed the racing car driver Stirling Moss earlier in 1960. Nearly 30 years later, Freeman revealed to the broadcaster Anthony Clare that this was virtually the only interview that pleased him. Freeman had considered Moss a playboy but their encounter showed the racing driver to possess a "cold, precise, clinical judgement... a man who could live so close to the edge of death and danger, and trust entirely to his own judgement."

Freeman faced a difficult subject in Evelyn Waugh. Interviewed the week after Moss, Waugh, the author of Brideshead Revisited and Decline and Fall, was in a characteristically obstructive frame of mind. The result is a rare glimpse into the life and temperament of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th Century.

Poetic grande dame, not to mention Dame, Edith Sitwell prepares for her interview with John Freeman and producer Hugh Burnett

Dame Edith Sitwell, the well-known eccentric poet and personality, was John Freeman's guest in May 1959. At 71, Dame Edith was true to form, answering his questions in a way only she could. And she dressed for the occasion - in a headdress she called her 'bird king's hat', an ermine jacket, and with huge rings on her fingers.

"The last survivor of a dead epoch" was how the distinguished philosopher Bertrand Russell described himself. He used his long life to challenge the accepted ideas and conventional attitudes of the day. Then in his 87th year, Lord Russell discussed with John Freeman his experiences, his achievements, and his unfulfilled ambitions.

Professor Carl Gustav Jung was viewed as the greatest living psychologist when he was filmed at his lakeside home near Zurich in 1959. Freeman found Jung - although an old man - as sharp and clear-thinking as ever. It proved to be a timely encounter; Jung died 18 months later. This was Freeman’s only interview in which he did not adopt his customary style of interviewing with his back to the camera, his face concealed from the viewer.

Among Freeman’s other subjects already available as part of this ��4 Talks collection are interviews with Henry Moore, Martin Luther King, Tony Hancock and Gilbert Harding.

Face to Face was revived (initially as part of the Late Show) from 1989 to 1998 with Jeremy Isaacs conducting the interviews with, among others, Jeanette Winterson, Maya Angelou, Lauren Bacall and Ken Dodd. These episodes are also available to watch on iPlayer.

The Sunday Post: The 1947 Fuel Crisis and the ��

2017-03-05T10:00:00+00:00

The television mast on Alexandra Palace was erected in 1936. During World War 2 it was used to send out fake homing signals to German bombers, but in February/March 1947 it was out of action when television was closed down to conserve fuel

It now seems like an incredible tale from the dim and distant past, but because of a national fuel shortage during the harsh winter of early 1947, the �� Television Service and the Third Programme, precursor to Radio 3, closed down for several weeks to conserve electricity.

Today’s Sunday Post looks at the changes to the planned schedules at this time. Another notable aspect of the crisis was that for two weeks, Radio Times was not printed, so listings of what did go out are missing from the database – and some of the programmes billed were not actually transmitted.

During the war, there was a constant need to economise on fuel, including to maintain the electricity supply that was vital for armament production. Campaigns encouraged people to save fuel, because other than coal and gas produced at home, all other fuel was imported by sea, and the danger of U-Boat attacks meant it was vital not to waste resources.

Post-war, conditions actually worsened in Britain in many ways. There was no longer the same danger to shipping, but the British economy had suffered greatly. The country was almost bankrupt from the cost of fighting the war, and its infrastructure took years to recover.

Fuel shortages

There was increasing concern about fuel shortages by the autumn of 1946. A �� memo in November that year talked about the electricity authorities' anxiety about the coming winter. Defence priorities during the war meant that worn out electricity generating machinery had not been replaced, and work on this now required some plant to be taken out of service. Power cuts were anticipated especially if the winter was severe, which turned out to be the case.

By the second month of the new year, the situation was getting critical. A memo of 8 February from the DG’s office proposed that the Light and Third programmes could close down each day at 11 pm, with the �� Service closing, after the news, three minutes later. Evening television would continue, but the morning demonstration film, and afternoon programmes, would cease. The memo also noted that electricity cuts might result in certain �� studios or outside broadcasts being left without power, so contingency plans were put in place for this possibility.

The fateful �� document recording the closedown of the television service

In the event, this was not quite how things happened: both the Third and television were shut down completely for some time. Television programmes continued as normal until Sunday 9 February, with the usual announcement of the programmes scheduled for the next day, followed by the sound-only news, and closedown.

However, the following day, Monday 10 February, there were no transmissions until 8.25pm, when the usual tuning signals and identifying shot of the Alexandra Palace mast was followed by an announcement (by Gillian Webb, one of a number of contract announcers in early post-war television) that the service would be suspended during the emergency. At 8.30pm and 54 seconds, the service closed again.

Nothing on the box...

For a few days the �� paperwork faithfully reports "no transmission" on the television service, until that too was abandoned on 18 February with the note "no transmission until further notice". For once, �� officialdom’s obsession with recording what has happened, even if nothing had actually happened, ran out of steam.

The other minority service, the Third Programme, also ceased during the crisis. On 10 February a memo advised that it would close down following an announcement at 6pm that evening, although some programmes scheduled during the suspension period could be recorded for later transmission, in order to honour �� contracts – although in the case of talks, only if the speaker would be unavailable when the emergency was expected to be over in two to three weeks' time.

It gradually dawns on Edmundo Ros and his band that the �� Television Service has closed down and they are wasting their time...

In the event, the Third Programme only remained off the air until 26 February. This might look like favouritism, as television took far longer to return, but both production and consumption of television used far more power than radio. Also, the Third Programme was available nationwide, while television was confined to the south east of England within range of the Alexandra Palace transmitter, and sets were expensive – so the potential audience affected was much smaller.

However radio overall played its part in the economy drive. Additional savings were achieved by amalgamating the �� Service and Light Programme schedules from 15 February to 15 March, although just during the day; the evening schedules retained separate services. Radio Times printed separate schedules when it resumed publication on 7 March, but with a box-out showing a combined schedule in case the restrictions had not been lifted.

On Tuesday 11 March, television returned. After the tuning signals and the filmed shot of the television mast, accompanied by Eric Coates’ Television March (this being the earliest de facto television ident), broadcasting resumed with a production of the play Outward Bound, postponed from exactly a month before. Even then the gremlins stepped in – there was a breakdown after 5 minutes and the play, after a brief return, did not start again fully until 8.54pm. Gillian Webb was again the announcer.

Here comes Muffin

Although the service was back, for a while programmes were confined to the evenings only. After a week, the morning transmission of the demonstration film, Television is Here Again recommenced. Afternoon programmes returned at weekends only from 22 March, including live sport and children’s programmes like Muffin the Mule.

Radio Times too was affected by the fuel shortage. As will be apparent from studying the Genome listings, and as is described in the FAQs, there were two weeks in which Radio Times did not appear, the editions which would have been published on 21 and 28 February.

For this reason, Genome is not just missing the television and Third Programme listings in Genome, as they were not transmitted, but also the �� Service and Light Programme billings, as there was no magazine to take them from. As with other occasions when there is no Radio Times, it is intended eventually to add these from �� records.

Television in fact did not even return exactly when Radio Times said it would, though the magazine admitted that it might not: programme pages for the first two editions after the magazine resumed warned that programmes were liable to change if circumstances demanded. In fact, though television listings appear for 9 March, it was another two days before any programmes were actually broadcast.

The planned 1947 outside broadcast of busmen's training at Chiswick depot was delayed until 1949 - which is about average where buses are concerned

So what programmes did listeners and viewers miss out on while the Third Programme and Television were suspended?

Highlights on the Third Programme included Sound on the Air, a studio discussion about "the relation between the actual sounds made in the studio and those that the listener is likely to hear" (ironically, given that they didn't hear anything in the event); Cupid and Psyche, a drama written and produced by the poet (and �� producer) Louis MacNeice, based on an ancient Greek story by Apuleis; and Aristophanes’s The Frogs, given consecutively in translation and then in the original Greek – along with the customary diet of "serious" music.

Television programmes cancelled or postponed ranged from Forecast of Fashion, plays like the repertory staple Outward Bound (as mentioned above), outside broadcasts from Chiswick showing bus drivers’ training and the behaviour of pedestrians, some ballet, and the rugby union international between England and France.

Normal service resumed

Full �� programmes were finally restored by the end of April. There were further fuel scares in 1950 and 1951 (and rationing of coal would continue until 1958), but in the event there were no further interruptions or restrictions to broadcasting – at least not until the 1970s. In 1972-74, disputes in the mining industry resulted in the three-day week, power cuts, and curtailed hours of broadcasting to save power, but no actual closure of services.

Covering the Olympics

2016-08-23T08:30:00+00:00

The greatest show on Earth has come to an end, with glory for Team GB and thousands of hours of �� coverage in the bag.

But there weren't always wall-to-wall, multi-channel broadcasts of the Olympic Games. In the early days of radio, there were only scant references to the event. In 1928, there was no live coverage and a sense that Great Britain was only going to compete after "doubts and difficulties" in a talk from a former sportsman.

In 1936, the opening ceremony of the Berlin games was given star billing for a "description of the scene". But it wasn't until the first post-war Olympics in London that coverage of the games really came into its own.

The �� was the host broadcaster and the event was televised for the first time. The Radio Times reflected this great occasion by creating its first Olympic front cover (above).

The home advantage was short-lived, however. For the Helsinki and Melbourne Olympics in the 1950s, television was in its infancy in the host nations, so it was back to quite limited radio coverage. An Australian games with its vast time difference and distance meant that UK listeners made do with recordings.

But the lull would not last long...

The Rome Olympics in 1960 saw coverage on �� radio and TV reach a new level, with a striking cover for the Radio Times and a magazine packed with side panels and schedules to guide viewers. With another distant games from Tokyo four years later, recorded Olympic action was flown over the Pole by jet in an era when satellite technology wasn't yet the norm.

The 1968 Olympics from Mexico City was another watershed for the ��. It coincided with the advent of colour (initially on ��2) and the Radio Times cover mirrored this. The magazine even changed its regular title font for the occasion. This was a growing era of satellite broadcasts and schedules which dealt with a time difference similar to Rio 2016.

From the 1970s onwards, blanket coverage of the Olympic Games emerged. Radio Times covers switched from striking design to the sports personality, with the likes of Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim and homegrown superstars like Daley Thompson, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sally Gunnell (pictured).

A notable absence from the line-up of Olympics covers is Moscow in 1980, which was beset by a boycott led by the US. Great Britain attended but stayed away from the opening ceremony, while the Olympic flag was raised for gold medal winners.

So Tokyo 2020 beckons. How will the games be covered? More wall-to-wall coverage or a dedicated Olympics channel? Let us know your thoughts on games past and future.

Remembering Television Centre

2016-07-01T11:35:00+00:00

At the end of June 1960, the new �� Television Centre sprang into life with great fanfare.

The first programme to come from the new purpose-built facility was a variety extravaganza called First Night starring the likes of Arthur Askey and magician David Nixon.

While the television service went to town on welcoming the futuristic building in west London, the Radio Times that week also accorded it great fanfare. The cover illustration (below) featured its curved lines along with some of First Night's star turns.

The magazine had a two-page spread about TVC, with a detailed plan of this "giant bowl of bricks and glass and concrete and mosaic", and described how it had been built to serve the needs of a rapidly expanding industry.

You can download a PDF version of the original article in full by clicking on this link. Feel free to share your thoughts about it at the end of this post.

�� Three leaves the airwaves

2016-02-16T10:30:00+00:00

Little Britain's David Walliams as the ever-helpful Carol.

Today �� Three switches from a linear broadcast channel to an online-only presence. We mark the occasion by considering the when, what and why of �� Three.

The �� moved into digital broadcasting in the late 1990s, with the launch of the �� News channel (aka �� News 24) in November 1997, followed by �� Parliament and �� Choice in 1998, and �� Knowledge in 1999. �� Choice launched as an online service initially, as it was not until a week after its debut on 23 September 1998 that digital television became available in the UK with Sky Digital on 1 October, and ONdigital in November. Choice was the first UK channel to transmit solely via digital broadcasting.

�� Choice was seen initially as an extension of the existing terrestrial channels, offering repeats and extended content related to programmes on �� One and Two. Its programmes included The Take and Backstage, the former a combination of themed archive clips and programmes, the latter a look behind the scenes of �� shows. Unlike �� Three, Choice also broadcast children’s programmes, only at weekends at first, but later on weekdays too.

In summer 2000, the �� changed the format of both Choice and �� Knowledge, with the former concentrating far more on the youth audience. Soon after proposals were put forward to rebrand �� Choice as �� Three and �� Knowledge as �� Four, with children’s programming moved to two dedicated channels, CBeebies and C��.

�� Four got the go-ahead, but the government wanted more consultation about �� Three because of a perceived clash with what was already being offered by channels such as ITV2 and E4, and it was not until early 2003 that the �� was able to proceed with the new service.

�� Three launched on Sunday 9 February 2003, though �� Choice had its last proper programmes the preceding Friday, with a �� Three ‘preview loop’ transmitted on Saturday. To promote the new channel, �� Two simulcast the first two hours of programming, which included the chat show Johnny Vaughan Tonight, music show Re: Covered and entertainment news strand Liquid News (the last had evolved from a �� News channel show called Zero 30).

But one lasting legacy of the evening would be a new sketch show, a television version of a successful Radio 4 programme, Little Britain. It starred Matt Lucas and David Walliams, with voice-over support from Tom Baker. Like the earlier The Fast Show, Little Britain proved more than just a cult hit, with memorable characters and catchphrases that caught the popular imagination, making Lucas and Walliams into national celebrities.

Some �� Three logos. Take you back don't they... (I miss the little orange guys)

�� Choice had repeated EastEnders since the autumn of 1999, and this continued on �� Three, with EastEnders Revealed one of the few original series to translate to the new channel from Choice. From the start, �� Three had more success in finding new comedy shows than dramas, though it did eventually launch Torchwood, as well as hosting repeats of the new series of Doctor Who from 2005 (and spin-off Doctor Who Confidential).

There was also the popular fantasy drama Being Human, about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf sharing a flat, which starred Russell Tovey and Aidan Turner, though there were several cast changes over its lifetime (including changes from the pilot).

Aside from Little Britain, undoubtedly the two most prominent �� Three comedies have been the prolific Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (although that was actually premiered on ��2, to promote it, and was another series carried over from �� Choice, where it debuted in 2001), and the sublime Gavin and Stacey. The latter, written by and co-starring James Corden and Ruth Jones, concerned the long-distance relationship of Gavin (Matthew Horne) from Essex and Stacey (Joanna Page) from Barry, South Wales, and the problems that arise from their marriage and attempts to start a family, complicated by their respective best friends (Corden and Jones) and their families, friends and neighbours.

It’s always hard to analyse what makes a comedy successful, if it was possible to pin it down there wouldn’t be so many that fail to make the grade and are forgotten in the mists of time. Gavin and Stacey had some almost soap opera elements, mixed with surreal character traits in the supporting cast, but at its heart there was a truthfulness about relationships that struck a chord with many viewers.

Like many a hit on a minority channel it did make the journey to the mainstream to capitalise on its success, but it succeeded in drawing attention to �� Three as a seed bed for innovative programming.

The Gavin and Stacey cast celebrate the monarchy becoming a job-share.

�� Three also has a strong history of documentary making with a youth-oriented slant, and the kind of subjects it tackles have also been covered by its occasional one-shot dramas. Since 2009 there have been a series of documentaries presented by Stacey Dooley, who first appeared as one of the contributors to Blood, Sweat and T-shirts the year before. This led to her being asked to present investigations into such subjects as child labour, the sex trade, drugs, and the effects of tourism on the Third World.

News has also been a feature of the channel. Although its half hour news slot The News Show, later The 7 O’Clock News on ��3, was dropped in 2005, news has continued to be presented in the form of 60 Seconds, a brief bulletin (hence the title), which later had dedicated summaries covering world events, science and entertainment.

One of the most striking features of the �� Three had been its transmission hours – starting in the early evening but going on through the night. Even though many channels are 24-hours now, the overnight programming tends to be uninspired due to the low viewing figures. Although �� Three (and Four is the same) does not do much new programming after midnight it repeats some of the same programmes as earlier in the evening.

This falls in line with the general policy of smaller channels: the big beasts of �� One and Two are always going to get more viewers, so it would be wasteful to only show a programme once, denying many people the chance to see it. Putting a programme on more than once in a day, or repeating it over a number of days, not only spreads out costs, but gives more viewing opportunities.

Interestingly, this approach mirrors the earliest days of television. When the ��’s high definition service began officially in November 1936, programmes were often given more than one outing, because even with the very small audiences then available it was recognised that someone who could view in the afternoon might not do so in the evening, or vice versa. Many shows were done twice in one day, and revived days, weeks or even years later. We’re all used to the concept of repeats, but in the 60s and 70s some came to regard them at times as an annoyance. However for every person who has seen a programme before, there are always more people who have not.

�� Three has suffered an image problem during its existence, with Jeremy Paxman famously deriding some of the titles of its shows on Newsnight. Nonetheless, the news that it was to become an online-only channel was condemned by many leading lights in the comedy world who saw the value of the exposure the channel gave to new and innovative comedy. Whether such shows will continue to be made and gain prominence in the new format of the channel, will only become apparent over time.

The �� had been concerned for a long time that the younger part of the population has been falling out of love with traditional linear media. The reaction to the �� Three move has perhaps shown that the feeling is not universal, despite the fact that it seems the most logical channel to move if its target audience is really more interested in the internet than in television.

Even the younger viewers who are the core of C��'s audience are now also said to be more inclined to view online than on a television set, so it seems likely the CBeebies audience may follow suit over time.

Will all �� channels one day only be available online? What are your memories and opinions of �� Three? Let us know, as ever, what you think, in the space below.

Finding Welsh TV gems

2015-08-04T09:44:48+00:00

Singer Shirley Bassey "returned to her people" for this Cardiff show

A part of my job involves delving into the �� picture library, which often unearths gems from the history of television.

I've noticed a rich and varied stills collection from �� Wales and their television programmes from across the decades, including a 1957 show (pictured above), which was a glitzy homecoming concert for Cardiff-born singing superstar Shirley Bassey.

It's always a joy to match the wonderful image with its Genome listing which states that Shirley Comes �� brought the singer back from "the bright lights of Las Vegas and the West End" to Cardiff's Queen Alexandra Dock.

Broadcaster Michael Aspel - best known for presenting This Is Your Life and the Antiques Roadshow - crops up regularly in the Welsh image collection. You may not know (I certainly didn't) that his early career was forged in Cardiff, where he presented the first news bulletins in the late 1950s.

If you search for him in Genome, you discover that in 1956 he read Morning Story on radio's Light Programme, which was produced in Wales.

The database is rich in Welsh language listings, such as long-running current affairs programme Heddiw (Today) which was given a wider airing for many years, including a regular Sunday afternoon slot on �� One.

However, Genome does not yet have a dedicated stream for �� Wales programming history, which has been very distinct for many decades. This is one of the many things to think about as the project continues to develop, and you can find more information about the regional versions in the FAQs.

It's amazing where a couple of fantastic archive images can take you...

Michael Aspel was a Cardiff-based �� newscaster

�������� Genome Blog Feed