OK then, precisely what material exists of the pre war BBC TV service?
Apart from the mute and smeary off-screen film recording taken in the United States in 1938, not a single frame of live pre-war BBC television survives (except where coincidentally, you can see a TV screen in some newsreel or other). The only surviving pre-war programmes are (a) programmes made on film for television (e.g. Television Comes To London, the 1937 Demonstration Film and the film of the 1937 Coronation) and (b) bought-in programmes such as the cinema newsreels, Mickey Mouse cartoons and some short featurettes from the ACE Cinemagazine. That’s all, sadly.
