MAN: It's a marvellous achievement, absolutely marvellous, and anybody that's never seen it couldn't believe how wonderful it is. I'm that pleased, I really can't say much about it. It's magnificent.
INTERVIEWER: Has it come up to your expectations?
MAN: Oh definitely, yes. I'm more than pleased, as I said before. And the reason I ordered a television was that, when I get out of my shop and I get in my armchair, I don't feel like going to the pictures at all, and my wife wants to go and I don't want to go, so I said, well, we'll bring the pictures to the home, and that's what it is - it's a really miniature cinema and theatre in your own home. It's absolutely wonderful.
WOMAN: You know, not long ago our theatre was burned down, and I do think that television here now is going to help to replace it wonderfully - oh, much more than people will ever know of.
INTERVIEWER: You're not worried about the cost of the set?
WOMAN: And, you know, when my husband told me that he'd invested in one of these wonderful things - and it is wonderful - I was really afraid, because we'd worked very, very hard for this money to buy this piece of furniture, because it is a lovely piece of furniture - and now, after tonight, I'm more than sorry for the unkind things I said when it was delivered to my home.
INTERVIEWER: Well, they're all at home tonight. We'll have a quick word from Geoffrey.
GEOFFREY: I think it's smashing!
1949 - in this clip a family rejoices in the entertainment offered by their new television set. A modern day viewer might struggle to understand what all the fuss was about!
The typical television - like the Bush TV 22 from 1950 that begins this clip - had a 9 inch (22.5 cm) screen in a circular shape and a very dim picture that was subject to all sorts of interference.
The programmes on offer would also seem very strange to a modern day viewer. The listings for Sunday 9 July 1950 for the solitary TV channel provided by the 91热爆 reads:
5pm: For the Children - Annette in Fairyland
5.30pm: Children's Newsreel
5.45pm - 6pm: Scenes from the Royal Military Tournament
8pm: Sunday Serenade with Vanessa Lee
8.15pm: Nancy Price in The Orange Orchard, a Devonshire comedy. The action takes place in the Devon village of Tavybridge and a solicitor's office in London
9.45pm - 10pm: News (sound only)
As the family in clip observe, with the pictures now in the home there was a reduced desire to find entertainment outside the home and cinemas, in particular, entered a period of decline.
The images show a Bush TV 22 television set from the early 1950s and a family pictured in 1947.
Play next
The 91热爆 opens a new relay station. video
1949 - the opening of the 91热爆's Sutton Coldfield relay station
What will the benefits of TV be? video
Speakers consider the benefits of TV at the opening of the Midlands relay station
An early TV 'addict' video
A young mother enthuses about the joys of television - including its educative value.
