What's on TPTV
 

Spilt from this thread:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=173460

Cheers

Mike T


Yes Ken. There's much more were that came from as well:D

Dave

Thanks for the Marconiphone "heads up" at post 14* Charlie. This is the sort of 15 minute filler that doesn't get listed in the Radio Times TPTV schedule for some reason and the tech films are often shorts of that length. There was [an Arts] one before School for Secrets at 6-30pm last night for example!
I've learned to check on line these days!

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I've just seen there's a short silent film on Talking Pictures TV at 6 AM 30/11/2020. The program info says:

1930s silent film on The famous Radio made by Marconiphone at 6 a week! A great example of this British manufacturing companies products and services.

Watch on Sky 328 | Freeview 81 | Freesat 306 | Virgin 445

Peter.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Next up within the Forum range of interests is on December 8th at 18.30
'The History Of The Record Industry - It's in The Groove! 1949.
A wonderful look at the rise of the record industry, from its primitive beginnings to the unveiling of the formats that would revolutionise the world of popular music: the LP and the single.'
Set your recorders.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Noted for viewing.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Not exact thread title subject, but watched the Marconiphone film this morning on TPTV. Recognised the AC42, same as what I have, though mine hasn't been touched since buying it. One day, maybe....?
Rob

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I'd made a note but confused 6am with pm somehow Rob. I see it's listed as a silent film showing that set being built. Worth catching next time ?

Dave

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Nothing being built is shown. Just various models in different situations together with deposit and payment costs. The best scenes are where a ramshackle homebrew selection is dealt with. Credits said produced by amateurs.
No doubt will be a second airing sometime.
Rob

TPTV Programme about the Record Industry.
 

Titled, "The history of the record industry - It's in the groove!".
1830 - 1855 Tuesday 8 December.
"1949 A wonderful look at the rise of the record industry, from it's primitive beginning to the unveiling of the formats that would revolutionise the world of popular music: the LP and the single."

Looks interesting,
Rob

Re: TPTV Programme about the Record Industry.
 

Just bumping this. Tonight, 6:30 PM.:thumbsup:

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I've just been looking at that Ken. I thought I may have missed it as with the Marconiphone short shown at 6am [post 6*] but as you say, it's on tonight at 6-30 PM !! [A full 25 minutes worth of the record Industry in 1949].

It's preceded by William Tell at 6pm who has a Scientist working for him. That series mixes it's era's a bit but it works:-).

There was a film [a Musical] about a 1935 Pirate Radio Station at 7-10am this morning "Big Ben Calling" but I didn't spot that one.

At 2-45pm today, a 15 minute short "Snowtime Serenade" Singer and Trio. Recommended.

Just finishing at the moment [1pm] is "Dilemma" [1962] fascinating, frantic, and really interesting. I've been exhausted just watching it previously. It's on again tomorrow but at 2-30 AM!

I really recommend printing out the guide, with a concise synopsis of each offering, from the TPTV Website. Apart from being accurate, it's a very useful future reference and memory aid. Once again the Radio Times TPTV listing continues to omit some prime items ie Showtime Serenade and It's in the Groove are not included there. I've probably missed a lot of good stuff by relying on RT. It seems to be averse to shorts in some way>:(


Dave

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Coming up soon NEW YEAR’S EVE (THURSDAY)
The Telephone at Work at 6.35pm. This Rank training film from the 1970s warns of the excessive use of the telephone in our working lives. We’re shown how to conduct business politely by phone. A fascinating film full of trimphones and typewriters.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Warns of excess use ? tell that to those who cannot cross the road without a mobile in there ear!

Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Apparently 5 minutes of amateur footage. Maybe showing the JLB TV Studios?

Dave W

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Thank you I missed that.

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Thanks Dave, I've set it to record.

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOIsenLDU9o

Apparently the Crystal Palace South Tower foundation is to be listed. The South Tower formed part of BTL's premises and was used for their television transmitter aerial. After initial problems constructing the water towers to the design of architect Charles Heard Wild in the early 1850s the design task was passed to I.K. Brunel

Both North and South Towers survived the November 1936 fire and remained until the winter of 1940/41 when they were considered too obvious a landmark for enemy aircraft. The South Tower was dismantled because of its proximity to other buildings but the North Tower was toppled by explosives in April 1941

Peter

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

The TPTV footage is very interesting particularly in the next day shots showing the north end still standing.

Peter

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

I missed it after all that:-) It seems to be different from all your other interesting links Peter. I only spotted this item because I've realised that the TPTV Schedule is the only one that that can be guaranteed to include all the "shorties" ie 5/10 or 15 min features that are fitted into the gaps. Even then I often forget to look! I notice accusations of arson here and there on the web and it's arguable that JLB suffered the major loss re his Studio and equipment.

The amazing Crystal Palace was of course, constructed for the Great Exhibition in 1851 and in 1951 there was a Festival of Britain to celebrate the end of the war and look into the future. My sense of symmetry and indeed common sense left me appalled when there was such a concentration on "The Dome" at the end of the Millenium as the centre piece of a largely failed enterprise ["The Emperors New Clothes Exhibition"-compare it with Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012 for example!]. If only they'd had the wit to wait for the 150th Year Anniversary, ie in 2001. The Dome might have had some content, especially regarding TV History and everything else that was planned around it could have been built or started. Just one obvious futuristic/contemporary link would have been the film "2001 A Space Odyssey" on giant screens. Instead we got a damp squib symbolised by feeble fireworks and a hypothermic Greenwich audience on New Years Eve 2000:shrug:

Dave

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Hi Dave,

The fire scenes were very similar to those in the YouTube I linked. The next day scenes didn't show much of the south end of the site. I've copied some frames below showing the north end and the crowds in Crystal Palace Parade.

Peter

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Having recently wandered round CP as it is today all that is left of course are the front terraces. But I was very disappointed in that there is virtually no information at the site giving its history and maybe some of these historic photos. The only publicity board I found at when I was there sadly just told me when the refurbished cafe elsewhere in the park was going to open...

Dave

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

I've never visited it but there is the Crystal Palace Museum located next to the base of the south tower in Anerley Hill.

Peter

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Thanks for putting up those frames Peter-excellent. It's my ambition to visit the CP site Dave so I will check out the museum Peter mentioned. I went to "Ally Pally" some years back and I was very impressed so the other Radio high spot [of the day] is a must. I found Alexandra Palace and the general area strangely moving but there is more of it [as mentioned]. I was standing out side the main entrance which still had a BBC sign on it at the time and got mistaken for a security guard for some reason by some teenagers looking for the entrance:Da

On the way we visited Muswell Hill and the Irish Pub featured on the centre spread of the Kink's LP of the same name. It's only a small part of the giant building these days but there is a tiled memorial to it's musical link at the front.

Dave W

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

Fascinating: I went to Crystal Palace on quite a few occasions back when it was a motor-racing circuit.

[Also vintage-related: some of the scenes for "The Italian Job" were filmed there]

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I see why on my visits I didn't go into the museum, it is only open on Sundays (and not at all at the moment of course). I found the whole area fascinating, was there while walking the Capital Ring where one of its sections ends. One visit was not enough, I spent a second hour when I continued the next section. Not just the palace remains but also the dinosaurs and of course that huge tower in the background. Those interested in sports have a huge arena in the middle to ogle at as well.

Dave

Re: Crystal Palace Fire TPTV 12-20pm
 

BTL did recover from their insurers a large part of their financial loss resulting from the fire. It's probably true that by that date they could see the writing on the wall for the supply of equipment to the BBC but reports suggest that the fire started some distance away from their part of the building.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Well that's new to me Peter. I'll try to look it up but my files are a bit disorganised at present to say the least;) Your balanced and scholarly approach to JLB matters is always welcome!

Dave W

[Anchored down on the south coast!]

Re: What's on TPTV
 

The cause of the fire has been attributed to a broken boiler flue in the central heating system that supplied the offices in the main transept and Tomes and other BTL staff managed to salvage some important files and equipment whilst the heat started to become apparent at the far end of their premises and eventually progressed above them until the fire brigade directed them out of the area. Szegho who was in charge of the CRT development got there and ensured that oxygen and other gas cylinders had been removed.

Peter.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

My old Mum actually watched the Crystal Palace fire. I always wondered how a building of metal and glass could be destroyed by fire, but I guess there was lots of wood around?

Re: What's on TPTV
 

As I understand it there were gaps between the wooden floorboards to permit easy sweeping and if the wood caught fire in the large undivided halls there was very good ventilation to promote the spread of the fire. Many of the large exhibits were also constructed of wood and flammable fabrics.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

It looks like the ironwork softened in the fire and collapsed.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

My late father was a Londoner and I remember him saying that as a teenager he went to Crystal Palace and you could still find bits of melted glass lying around in the grass.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I’ve only ever been on the site once. I was a passenger in a car with someone who lived locally, it was dark, and remember seeing the terracing and being told where I was. It looked decidely eerie.

I have wondered often about it recently as I was reading a book about Elgar and how as a young man (late 1800s) he used to commute from Worcester to hear orchestral concerts. I do wonder what the accoustics were like for such events.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Apparently Farnsworth on a visit to BTL the following January found one of his own image dissectors suitably deformed in the wreckage.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

If anyone interested in the long-defunct British space race TPTV are showing

a nice doc on the Blue Streak Rocket

Sunday 24 January 3:40am
IWM: THE BLUE STREAK ROCKET (1962)

For trivia fans, it was one of these rockets or descendants featured in the launch sequence
of the final episode of TV show 'The Prisoner'

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Thanks for the "heads up". Although I think I've seen this before, I would consider it worth watching again.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I caught "The Net" [1951] yesterday but not early enough to flag up. It only rated 2 stars and was described as an Espionage Drama in the schedule but there was the usual stiff upper lip romantic story to go with the setting which involved experimental trials with a new [swish] Aircraft that used "Atomic" Engines to go beyond the sound barrier, alternating between on board and "Ground Control" systems [I wondered if David Bowie had ever seen it?]. They tested pressure suits at Mach 5.

A bit clunky but like a lot of these films [surprisingly there does seem to have been quite a few that I've never come across before] a great deal must have been spent on the sets at least!
Were they supressed in some way? I've not seen a lot of them before either on TV or in the cinema. I found this one surprisingly enjoyable overall-there was some technical content and I would have rated it higher perhaps! When Close Encounters and all the subsequent new types of Sci-Fi films came out [post 1979] there was a suggestion that someone was trying to tell us something! It looks the same back then in a way! I've a feeling that these post war productions might have disappeared altogether without TPTV intervening. Herbert Lom is his usual smooth self, while Robert Beatty is the Security Man, a similar role to the one he plays at the Space Station in "2001 A Space Odyssey" [1968]. Wikki hardly mentions that which surprises me? Bowies "A Space Oddity" single came out in June 1969, in time for the Moon Launch.

Dave W

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I have added a little more to my website about the BTL labs and studios that were destroyed.

Below is the melted remains of the Farnsworth Image Dissector.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Further to my search for information about BTL's premises at the Crystal Palace I came across a rather interesting photo showing the South Tower that BTL used for their aerials when testing the experimental 180 line and 240 line transmissions. What do you think is happening in the photo?

The answer is not obvious but none the less interesting.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

No takers?

Well when I first saw it I couldn't think what was happening until I discovered that the Crystal Palace was home to the Imperial War Museum from WW1 until 1924 when it moved to Bedlam. The mystery photo predates the BTL occupation at the Palace and shows one of the more extreme tools for observing the enemy's position. It is a very long periscope. Also in the Museum's collection is a more down to earth tool for the same purpose, the camouflage tree.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

My father lived at Havelock Road Wimbledon in 1936. He told me he could see a huge orange glow in the sky and within minutes the radio announced that the Crystal Palace was burning.

He cycled to the Palace in a nightmare of traffic and watched as it burnt to the ground. He told me he was amazed at the molten glass running into the gutters.

I wish he was with us now to maybe give some more details. He died in 1963. John.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Ordinarily you might think an Iron and Glass construction was counterintuitive in terms of a major fire that could melt glass John but I suppose it's the cumulative effect of the contents:shrug: My father died early at 53 [in 1979]. Questions Questions eh! I printed that photo out for close examination Peter but of course I felt certain that it MUST be something to do with an aerial array??? It's all about context I suppose.

Dave W

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Ventilation was important and louvred slats could be opened in the side walls and also the wooden floor boards that were tarred on the underside had half inch gaps between adjacent boards to aid the passage of air. The fire is thought to have started in an office on the north side of the central transept and with a strong north westerly wind that evening it quickly made its way south.

Peter

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Oh dear yes-sort of an accidental blow torch8-o Nowadays we manage the same thing with cladding despite a regulatory system [because it's ignored and not inspected!] At least there was some excuse re relative ignorance back then. I have Radio 4 programs about the history of [largely wooden] Theatres. The number of times they burn down is pretty shocking and much worse than say Football Grounds or Railway Stations etc. I suppose all that tar and the ventilation gaps might actually make the CP Arson theory more credible:shrug:.

Dave

Re: What's on TPTV
 

It would appear that the periscope was a German device. There is more about it here.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Another one for your diary.

TPTV

How Television Works 01 Mar 21 17:45





.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Thanks Charlie!

Dave W

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I saw that periscope, or one like it, when we took the kids to the Imperial War Museum a couple of decades ago. I had forgotten its origin.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

To my surprise, a 1956 edition of 'Sir Lancelot' (just shown) was in colour. But then, on the credits, NBC Television was mentioned. This must have been a Sapphire Films export for the very early US color service.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

I like "Public Eye". Takes me back to my teens.

Cheers

Aub

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Cheers Dave apparently from 1951 so should be interesting.

Re: What's on TPTV
 

Tuesday 23rd, 1030, a 10 minute 1968 film "All done by Electricity."
Outlining dangers of electricity in the home.
Rob