Tonight’s BBCtv… in 1964 

10 March 2016 tbs.pm/8395

The Radio Times gives us a run down of BBC Television Service programmes on Tuesday 10 March 1964. Things worth noting include:

• Programmes during the day get both in and out times, useful for teachers and busy mothers planning their day
• The 11.55am to 1.25pm gap merits a full closedown and a start-up sequence
• Meanwhile, the gap between The Woodentops finishing at 1.45pm and the single schools programme at 2.05pm probably warrants a ticking clock, a slide, or maybe a brief visit to the testcard. Whichever, there will be funky music
• Children’s BBC in 1964 is not up to much. Rubovia, a puppet thing on film at 5.10pm, is dull. The Fascinating Facts Kenneth Kendall comes up with at 5.30pm aren’t
• Here in the South East we’re not really bothering with local news, since 95% of it will have been on the national news at 6pm. So instead here’s continuity announcer and newsreader Michael Aspel at 6.10pm with a slightly lighter presentation of local events

• Compact at 7.35pm was very popular, despite not being popular with BBC executives. They eventually messed with its formula, timeslot and budget until it shook most of its audience off. Then they cancelled it and wiped most of the tapes. Well done everybody!
• Episode 3 of series 7 of Sykes and a… is missing along with many of the shows across all nine series. There’s no huge stars in this one, but everybody who was in it was spot on. It’s a work of genius
• NBC’s The Dick Powell Theatre gives us a rather taught drama about a man released from being a POW in Korea returning to his home in the US to find that everybody around him is corrupt and venal. If you’re wondering where Dick Powell comes into it, he was the original host but died in 1963; his name survived on the programme
• Nielsen knocked out Walker in the eighth round
• BBC-2 is getting ready for launch in April and is thus showing quite a varied and full schedule for people who have already got 625-line UHF sets and a new aerial and are within reach of the Channel 33 signal in London (ie, almost nobody)
• Testcard and tone is mixed with test films and generic films used as a test, but there are a couple of items for early adopters and television shop showrooms to display – the rather generic 1951 musical Two Tickets to Broadway at 3pm and the creaking 1940 comedic romance Lucky Partners at 6.40pm
• There’s nothing from the soon-to-be BBC-2 in the evening because the BBC even in its finest pomp couldn’t spin evening programmes as test transmissions