Celebrating 75 years of British TV

Television broadcasting has been with us now in the UK for 75 years this week.

You may have watched BBC4's coverage last night.

On the second of November 1936,Leslie Mitchell announced the official opening of the first high-definition public television service in the world to probably no more than around 1000 people watching.

Here is the first part of Mitchell 40 year's later tracing the origins of television from the beginning of the 20th Century to the first outside broadcast the Coronation of George VI in May 1937.



As the Times reflects this morning in its leader,Three quarters of a century of TV has dumbed us up, not down.

Three quarters of a century of television have given us news, drama, sport, David Attenborough, royal weddings, popular understanding of science, direct democracy, The Wire, satire and the Open University. And, admittedly, The X Factor, but nothing is perfect.