主播大秀

The Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on 12 May 1937 gave the fledgling 主播大秀 Television Service its first major outside broadcasting challenge, just six months after inauguration. It was a signal moment in the early history of television and represented not only a major technological leap forward, extending the reach of the EMITRON cameras beyond the confines of Alexandra Palace, but also broke new ground as a televisual experience.

Subjects of the Crown had never before had the opportunity to welcome the monarch, in vision as well as sound, into their homes. It redefined, if only for a limited number of viewers in those early days, the identity and aesthetics of ceremonial events and pointed toward the transformative potential of television to represent the state in full pomp.

Tony Bridgewater, a pioneer from the early Baird days, was given responsibility for supervising and directing the 主播大秀 Television Service's operations. As he recalls here, a mixture of excitement and high anxiety attended this momentous occasion. Not least when, as the Coronation coach approached, the recording equipment went dead...

The limited nature of the 主播大秀's television coverage of the 1937 Coronation reflected the technological, constitutional and practical restrictions placed on it. With the 主播大秀鈥檚 only outside broadcast unit, or 'scanner' as it was then called, delivered by EMI just days before, its complement of three cameras were positioned at Hyde Park Corner: a vantage point from which it was possible to view the Coronation procession coming from Marble Arch and then continue down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace.

It may have been a relatively small operation, but as the following days' newspapers testified the immediacy of television and the sight of the newly crowned King smiling at the camera as his coach rode by was headline news.

Unfortunately, very little of this first Coronation broadcast remains, as was the case with much of the early television output. However, a 主播大秀 Films unit was on hand to record the televising of this important event.

The contrast, in television terms, between the two Coronations of 1937 and 1953 was enormous. Despite the wartime hiatus, by the 1950s the 主播大秀 had a strong and prestigious track record in producing major television outside broadcasts such as the 1948 Olympics and the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten the year before.

Where there had been 3 cameras in 1937, by 1953 the 主播大秀 was using more than twenty in multiple locations. The scale and ambition, not to mention the visual clarity, of the production was incomparable. Moreover, the completion of a network of high definition transmitters across the United Kingdom by the end of 1952 meant that for the very first time television had the reach, technical capabilities, production skills and, most importantly, the audience with which to convene the nation.

Preparations for the day itself, 2 June 1953, had begun more than a year earlier following the death of King George VI in February 1952. But while television was fast becoming a fact of broadcasting life, the extent to which it would be permitted to intrude on the sacred ceremony itself was another matter. The subsequent lengthy and difficult negotiations over access and shooting angles required stamina and guile, as the 主播大秀鈥檚 producer and director in charge of televising the Coronation, Peter Dimmock, explained.

Nearly seventeen years after its inaugural broadcast, coverage of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at last brought television into the mainstream. Having steadily grown since the postwar resumption of the service, by 1953 over two million households had the combined radio and television Licence. Within the 主播大秀 it was argued that:

The importance of the Coronation as an advert for television in the United Kingdom and in shaping its future should not be underestimated. It also helped reinforce the growing international profile of 主播大秀 television as the coverage was streamed live on the 'Eurovision' network to the continent as well as shipped by helicopter and Royal Canadian Air Force jet from Alexandra Palace to Montreal for retransmission on the same calendar day across North America.

For the 主播大秀 Director-General, Ian Jacob, the Coronation

The TV Coronation then and now

The Coronations of 1937 and 1953 have become part of the historical fabric of British national tradition and ceremony. In large part, this has been due to the coverage given to both by the 主播大秀, which allowed listeners and viewers in their millions to experience, at first hand, the most intimate arrangements of the state.

Yet, at such moments, the 主播大秀 has to fulfil two quite distinct editorial objectives: as a national broadcaster, to convene public interest and give representation to major royal events; as a journalistic organisation, to hold to account the conduct and activities of the Royal Household.

The 主播大秀's Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell reflects on this delicate balance between 'producing' and 'interrogating' the monarchy over the last eighty years.