Spanning the Decades 

Stranded On The Rock

In December 1946 the BBC's radio features department revived the pre-war round-the-world link-up of Christmas Day greetings which preceded the annual message from the Monarch. Edward Ward, BBC reporter and BBC Plymouth engineer Stanley Cooms set off for Bishop Rock Lighthouse, the most westerly part of England. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles Of Scilly about 35miles from Land's End. They were to record yuletide messages from the isolated lighthouse keepers.
The two men had planned to stay on the lighthouse for only a few days, but the same gale-force winds and heavy seas featured in their Christmas round-up were to ensnare them for far longer than they could imagine. The 'Western Morning News' began to feature their plight with a daily news update and it was not until the 29th day that a lifeboat arrived to provide an escape route. 

Drama to the fore

Dramatic productions were an important part of West region's output. In 1948 a new series 'At The Luscombes' was launched, produced not only in Bristol but on occasion Plymouth. Brandon Acton-Bond produced the series and became perhaps the leading creative voice within Ingledene and Whiteladies Road. Brandon was to later transistion to television where he produced a highly acclaimed version of Lorna Doone in Bristol. In the following video the memories of two people help capture the atmosphere of the time. We meet Tony Soper for the first time, he being an important Alumnus of the Plymouth station, having joined as a youth-in-training in 1947. In the following decades Tony was a significant person  setting up The Natural History Unit, and a regular contributor to both the radio and television output of the region. 

The Beveridge Committee on Broadcasting

Judging by the number of occasions that British politicians and governments have instigated committees on the subject, one would think that the United Kingdom had had an obsession with media organisation . No doubt they do, because the power of politics can be influenced and filtered  by the broadcasting organizations and the regulatory structures around them. Post-War there was a growing movement challenging the concept of monopoly. With the power of television on the rise it was seen by many as an opportunity to introduce competition. Radio was so established as a monopoly with the BBC and had delivered well during the war that there were few voices for commercial radio but television was another story. The conservative party had several eloquent voices wanting competition supported by some captains of industry. The BBC had made a major blunder in alienating their  controller of Television by promoting a radio man over his head. Norman Collins resigned  and became a dynamic voice, supporting the Conservative Party broadcasting group who in turn wanted commercial TV. The BBC director general Sir William Haley still had his head in the sand thinking that television would be subservient to radio. Staying with radio, the committee also supported the development of VHF radio transmissions which provided the English regions with a means of viability - hooray!    

And so it was,  The television Act of 1954 was passed which paved the way for ITV. The master stroke and key to our story, was to organise ITV along regional lines, promoting internal competition and building regional production centres.

It is this author's conjecture that without ITV the BBC would not have invested in regional television and that sites like Plymouth would never had been equipped for TV production. It was impossible for the corporate BBC mentality not to seek to compete, and soon rollout of BBC regional TV stations mirrored ITV regional licences.

Surprise - a bit of investment!

This was a rare event indeed - the ground floor of Ingledene saw some significant changes to establish two refurbished studios with a bit of glamour and style..this to to form a new 'Drama Suite'. 

Sight and Sound

The First Murmurs of Journalism

It is significant to reflect on the state of journalism within the corporate BBC before moving to the presentation of news in the regions. After the war, under the leadership of Jerseyman William Haley, the BBC had created a news division to coordinate foreign and domestic output. In the late 1940's through a series of changes to the editorial board, Tahu Hole was promoted to Editor News. A New Zealander, he was noted as a man of extreme caution, forcing a situation where BBC correspondents could never supply a scoop story as he required all items broadcast to be supported by at least two sources. The result - BBC correspondents would give their stories to other agencies with the knowledge that before they got back to base the story would be on the agency wires and so be able to be broadcast themselves. This nonsense suppressed any ambition within the department. Together with the man's other, less than positive characteristics - demotion of challenging but able colleagues, a penchant for expensive meals and strip clubs while on working trips - he must be viewed in hindsight as perhaps one of the worst BBC managers ever. The BBC news division staggered on into the era of another Director General Sir Ian Jacob. At the start of the Korean war Tahu Hole suppressed the first reporting of hostilities fearing the news might cause a panic. In 1953 Cecil McGivern the Television Programme Controller had advocated for a daily news programme in vision. This unfortunately was held back by members of the board and Hole was given control of the Television Newsreel. It took over a year for a programme to reach the air, still with no in-vision content. It was described as a "sorry amateurish mess" and "about as impressive visually as the fat stock prices". A few weeks before the start of Independent television News on 22nd September 1955 Hole conceded that the faces of Richard Baker, Robert Dougall and Kenneth Kendall, the newsreaders, might actually be seen. BBC News was in the doldrums, ITV must have been bemused but delighted by the incompetence of their opposition. Tahu Hole was eventually moved on and BBC news began to compete with greater vigour. 

Back to the region, and the first thing to sort out was a news desk and a staffing structure to serve the region. Initially this had to be in the larger West Region using a Bristol base. Stuart Wyton was the editor and together with regional announcers the news was read from the continuity suite. The very first radio news bulletin for Devon and Cornwall was transmitted on 1st October 1956 just six weeks after the NHT transmitter went to full power from the new mast.

Plymouth's First Television Film

In the Spring of 1955 a new maritime project had been conceived 'Project Mayflower' Warwick Charlton came up with the idea of building a replica of the original Pilgrim Fathers ship. This was to commemorate the strong bond between the USA and Britain in the aftermath of the second world war. The sponsors met with Plimoth Plantation in the USA and agreed to cooperate with the project. They supplied the plans for the Mayflower 2 which had been researched by renowned naval architect William A Baker of MIT. It was to be built at Brixham in Devon by Uphams Shipyard. They had the necessary traditional skills to successfully deliver such a challenging undertaking using English Oak beams and authentic materials. At the BBC in Plymouth, John Irvine had been posted to the station to learn how to make television documentaries. On learning about 'Project Mayflower' he and his bosses agreed that would make an excellent subject for his first film. Filming started, capturing many of the original processes and shipbuilding skills. The poetic magic of Charles Causley added creative spirit to the narration. His contribution to the film is wholly fitting given that he was made a bard of Gorsedh Kernow adopting the bardic name Morvardh meaning 'Sea Poet'. "Mayflower Sails Again" was completed and originally broadcast on BBC TV on the 16th April 1957, in the same week that the ship sailed from Plymouth, Devon for the USA. It was a popular programme, repeated during the same year with a special showing for childrens television. 


  

Our Intrepid Reporter Heads Out

The Buccaneer Launches a Galleon

Ingledene Expands into Live Television

By the end of the 1950's the BBC was rolling out regional TV news services throughout the country mirroring the expansion of the ITV network. Plymouth was an interesting site as it already hosted comprehensive radio production as well as a  medium wave transmitter - the only site in the UK which was earmarked for all three duties. A potential challenge was envisaged with the likelihood of radio frequency interference so the planning engineers had costed expensive copper shielding for the rooms to be equipped for television. In November 1959 the finance case had been approved and in June 1960 the building work commenced. The final technical installation was underway by the new year of 1961. The budget was around £50,000 around one-tenth of the costs at Westward TV. Donald Kerr, John Tanton & John Irvine were the creative leaders responsible for formulating the new news service and had a great deal of autonomy in providing a bespoke service for the southwest.  Watch the video below for a flavour of the first transmission day. No recordings exist of the first bulletin or indeed any of the early bulletins as there was no means of recording available on-site and no video contribution circuits out of Plymouth for review or recording elsewhere.