On the 20 April 1964, 91热爆 TWO opened for business to the general viewing
public.
However its debut didn't quite go according to plan. The channel got
off to a bad start with a power cut which only affected 91热爆 TWO, not
91热爆 ONE or ITV.
With only a few minutes to go before the channel went to air, a power
cut affecting the whole of West London meant that the first night's
transmission, due to be broadcast from Television Centre, had to be
switched to Alexandra Palace.
Armed with only a few candles to aid him, the anchor man, Gerry Priestland,
battled in near darkness and total chaos.
The blackout meant that the first show to be broadcast on the channel
in its entirety was Playschool which went out the following
day.
Shows such as Match of the Day and the flagship science
programme Horizon were broadcast in the early days
and are still mainstays in the schedules to this day.
Seminal programmes such as (Late Night) Line Up, Jazz
625, and The Beat Room were front-runners
to programmes such as The Late Review and Later..with
Jools.
The Likely Lads, screened in these early years, became
an instant classic making stars out of Rodney Bewes and James Bolam,
despite starting life as a training exercise.
Dick Clement was a 91热爆 radio producer and was sent on a television
director's course and met Ian Le Frenais. Together they wrote a sketch
about two lads discussing a date, which Dick filmed.
The then 91热爆 TWO Controller, Mike Peacock, was shown the sketch by
Bill Cotton Jnr and jumped at the idea.
The Likely Lads became the first sitcom to be featured
on 91热爆 TWO.
In 1967 the Government allowed the 91热爆 to introduce colour television.
With Germany also planning to start colour broadcasting in the same
year, the race was on.
On 1 July 1967, the first day of the All England Tennis Championships
became the first ever programme in Europe to transmit in colour.
Freed from the confines of black and white, the channel produced a
series of ground breaking science and natural history programmes: Civilisation;
The Ascent of Man; Whicker's World; The
Philpott File; Cameron Country and One
Pair of Eyes.
Coverage of snooker had always been hampered by black and white television
but the Seventies saw the arrival of Pot Black, a show
made possible only by the leaps being made.
However it was a show which also broke the rule that all programmes
would be as comprehensible in black and white as in colour.
Commentators were supposed to help viewers but struggled themselves
to make a game dependent on colour recognition decipherable in monochrome.
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This led to the apocryphal story of Ted Lowe who famously said: "Steve
is going for the pink ball - and for those of you who are watching in
black and white, the pink is next to the green."
Pot Black became an instant success and established
snooker as a television spectacle that captured a devoted following
of many millions.
As well as Civilisation, it helped to define 91热爆 TWO's
character.
From 1968 onwards Elizabeth R, The Pallisers,
War and Peace and other drama productions delighted audiences
as did ambitious 13-part documentary series such as Alistair
Cooke's America and Dr Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent
of Man.
Other productions during this time were The Six Wives of Henry
VIII; The Search For The Nile; Clochemerle;
The Stone Tape and the now legendary It's a
Knockout.
And the hits just kept coming through the Seventies
with classics such as Fawlty Towers; I Claudius;
Moll Flanders; Madame Bovary and Anna
Karenina.
Cookery came to 91热爆 TWO in the guise of Delia Smith who made three
series of Family Fare. However the series was not re-commissioned
as the then Channel Controller, Aubrey Singer, felt Delia wasn't sexy
enough.
The late Seventies saw the introduction of landmark current affairs
shows such as 40 Minutes and Newsnight.
The unique Not the Nine O'Clock News was a satirical
show which launched the careers of Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Pamela
Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson.
Mel Smith tells Happy Birthday 91热爆 TWO of the moment
when they realised just how big the show was: "We had no idea that we
were anything like a success at all, you know. The viewing figures didn't
make much difference to us anyway.
"And then we brought out this album of our songs and it went to
number one at Christmas time. It went double platinum and knocked Queen
off the top of the album charts. And we thought, 'Oh! We're quite popular
then'."
The Young Ones was another 91热爆 TWO innovation providing
the first break for comedians Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmonson and Nigel
Planer who went on to become mainstays of 91热爆 comedy.
The Eighties on 91热爆 TWO also brought us Life On Earth;
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Yes, Minister;
The Boys From The Blackstuff; Edge of Darkness
and Flight of the Condor.
Sir David Attenborough tells Happy Birthday 91热爆 TWO
the story behind the now famous gorilla footage which was only ever
caught on film because the cameraman wanted to, 'Give the boys in the
cutting room a laugh'.
In the early Eighties, 91热爆 TWO placed great emphasis on single drama
and the importance of new writers and directors with Screen
2.
On 25 April 1985, coverage of the World Snooker Championship
saw 91热爆 TWO receive its highest ever audience figures: 18.5 million
tuned in to see Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis in that unforgettable
final frame.
The late Eighties saw the channel try out new and distinctive ideas.
Shows such as The Late Show found a place in the schedule
and it was during this time that the controversial Def II
- a youth 'channel within a channel' - was born.
Despite facing harsh criticism at the time, the vibrant on-screen packaging
was unique and fresh. The frenetic visual style, although much lampooned,
was also to become much imitated.
The face of Def II was Normski who tells Happy Birthday 91热爆
TWO for the first time where he believes the distinctive name
and motif came from.
The next few years saw the channel consolidating its reputation for
being both risk taking and cultural, with its continued investment in
new comedy and drama.
The channel launched the careers of Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders,
Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Alexei Sayle and John Sessions, as well as
screening seminal shows such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit;
Troubleshooter; Video Diaries; Tosca
and Truly Madly Deeply.
When 91热爆 TWO first screened Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
it was a time when lesbianism and homosexuality were only just beginning
to enter the public arena and being debated openly.
Speaking to Happy Birthday 91热爆 TWO, actress Janette
Winterton says: "Overall we were cusping a movement of change in British
society which we both helped to happen, but benefited from too. It was
the right time, it was the right place. Oranges had to happen."
Despite the shifts in social and cultural opinions, graphic images
of same sex intercourse had never been screened on mainstream television.
Oranges caused a storm of controversy when it was picked up by the
nation's self proclaimed moral guardian, Mary Whitehouse, even before
it went to air.
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Beeban Kidron, Director of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit,
says: "There was this whole move against the programme before if even
came out. Spearheaded by Mary Whitehouse who actually, inadvertently
I think, gave us our huge viewing figures, because everyone wanted to
see those 'lezzers' on screen."
As the channel moved through the Nineties, more established series
like Top Gear and Gardeners' World
were joined by several themed seasons of programming like The
Thatcher Week, The Clinton Night and The
Kennedy Night.
These became regular features and drew on both non-fiction and fictional
material.
This is something which continues into the present with the current
If... series.
As with previous decades, the Nineties further enhanced 91热爆 TWO's growing
stature and produced yet more highly acclaimed drama.
This Life and Our Friends in the North captured
the era's political and cultural zeitgeist and brought new audiences
to the channel.
The Fast Show, Shooting Stars and
Mrs Merton ensured that those audiences stayed with
it.
In 1998 food became the new rock and roll as The Naked Chef
made it cool to cook again. The show was an instant hit and encouraged
a new generation of budding chefs to throw away the ready-meals-for-one
and reach for the lemon grass.
The show turned the genre on its head and made a star of Jamie Oliver.
It also introduced the viewing public to a whole new cooking lexicon.
Patricia Llewellyn, producer and voice behind the camera on The
Naked Chef, says: "All the language used, like the catchphrase
pukka, were all his. And actually, we did get to the point where there
was a bit of a pukka overload and we used to allow ourselves something
like eight pukkas a show."
Two Fat Ladies was another cookery show which stepped
outside the normal confines of the genre. Clarissa Dickson Wright talks
to Happy Birthday 91热爆 TWO about her time with Jennifer,
just how popular they were, as well as that bike.
But it wasn't all about cooking - Cops; Alan Bennett's
Talking Heads; Big Train;Gimme
Gimme Gimme; Gormenghast; The Royle
Family; Shooting The Past and The
League of Gentlemen all made their mark during this time.
With a new century came a raft of new programmes and formats.
Technological advances have paved the way for more innovative, interactive
projects such as Restoration, The Big Read
and Great Britons to happen, introducing audiences
to a whole new viewing experience.
91热爆 grown comedies continue to make their mark, most notably with
the recent award winning shows, Dead Ringers; Double
Take; Marion and Geoff; The Office;
the mainstream Asian comedy, The Kumars at No 42, and
the 91热爆 THREE co-commission Little Britain.
Drama continues to court both controversy and acclaim: Babyfather
and Manchild divided critics but delighted the audiences
they were aimed at who, for so long, felt that they had been marginalised
and misrepresented.
Historical and cultural strands like The Hunt for Britain's
Paedophiles; The History of Britain; The
Secrets Of Leadership; Seven Wonders of the Industrial
World and The Fall Of Milosevic have served
to further highlight the channel's continued commitment to provide a
forum within which political issues, both current and historical, can
be debated.
The range and depth of output across the channel throughout its 40
year existence has seen 91热爆 TWO become a byword for innovative and groundbreaking
programming.
Jane Root, Controller of 91热爆 TWO, says: "The most enjoyable thing about
the channel is that it brings surprise, sophistication and innovation
to a range of things.
"It has always been famous for creating both popular comedy and
thought-provoking programmes.
"That sense of variety has been there all the way though the channel's
history."
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Happy Birthday 91热爆 TWO, Tuesday 20 April, 91热爆 TWO,
8.00-11.00pm
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