1937 in British television

This is a list of events related to British television in 1937.

Events

January

• 19 January – BBC Television broadcasts The Underground Murder Mystery by J. Bissell Thomas from its London station, the first play written for television. ^[1]
• 21 January – BBC Television begins broadcasting Cook's Night Out with restaurateur Marcel Boulestin, ^[2] probably the first television cookery series.

February

• 6 February – The BBC Television Service drops the Baird system in favour of the Marconi-EMI 405 lines system.

March

• No events.

April

• 14 April – An exhibition snooker match between Horace Lindrum and Willie Smith is shown on the BBC. This is the first time that snooker is shown on television. ^[3]

May

• 12 May – The BBC use their outside broadcast unit for the first time, to televise the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. A fragment of this broadcast is one of the earliest surviving examples of British television, filmed off-screen at home by an engineer with an 8 mm cine camera. A short section of this footage is used in a programme during the week of the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and this latter programme survives in the BBC's archives.
• 14 May – The BBC Television Service broadcasts a thirty-minute excerpt of Twelfth Night , the first known instance of a Shakespeare play on television. Among the cast are Greer Garson and Peggy Ashcroft who appears in a 1939 telecast of the entire play.

June

• 18 June – Broadcast of the Agatha Christie play Wasp's Nest , the only instance of Christie adapting one of her works for television, a medium she later came to dislike.
• 21 June – Wimbledon Championships (tennis) first shown on the BBC Television Service. ^[4]

July

• No events.

August

• No events.

September

• 16 September – Football is televised for the first time. It is a specially-arranged friendly match between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves at Highbury. ^[5]

October

• No events.

November

• 11 November (Armistice Day) – BBC Television devotes the evening to a broadcast of Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff (1928, set on the Western Front (World War I) in 1918), the first full-length television adaptation of a stage play and the first time that a whole evening's programming has been given over to a single play. Reginald Tate plays the lead, Stanhope, a role he has performed extensively in the theatre. ^{[6] [7]}

December

• 31 December – 2,121 television sets have been sold in England.

Debuts

• 19 January – The Underground Murder Mystery (1937)
• 12 April – Cabaret Cruise (1937-1939; 1946; 1949)
• 17 April – The Disorderly Room (1937–1939)
• 24 April – For the Children (1937–1939, 1946–1952)
• 14 May - Twelfth Night (1937)
• 19 May – The School for Scandal (1937)
• 18 June – Wasp's Nest (1937)
• 7 July – How He Lied to Her Husband (1937)
• 21 October – Night Must Fall (1937)
• 11 November – Journey's End (1937)
• 14 December – Tele-Ho! (1937)
• 20 December – The Ghost Train (1937)
• Unknown – Sports Review (1937)
• Unknown – Starlight (1937-1939; 1946-1949)

Continuing television shows

1920s

• BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)

1930s

• Picture Page (1936–1939, 1946–1952)

Births

• 1 January – Anne Aubrey, actress
• 9 January – Michael Nicholson, journalist (died 2016)
• 30 January – Vanessa Redgrave, actress
• 7 February – Peter Jay, economist, broadcaster and diplomat (died 2024)
• 25 February – Tom Courtenay, actor
• 8 March – Justine Lord, actress
• 27 March – Alan Hawkshaw, theme tune composer (died 2021)
• 9 April – Valerie Singleton, presenter
• 11 April – Jill Gascoine, actress and novelist (died 2020)
• 26 April – Gareth Gwenlan, Welsh-born television comedy producer and executive (died 2016)
• 1 May – Una Stubbs, actress (died 2021)
• 12 May – Susan Hampshire, actress
• 19 May – Pat Roach, actor and wrestler (died 2004)
• 5 August – Carla Lane, comedy writer (died 2016)
• 6 August – Barbara Windsor, actress (died 2020) ^[8]
• 18 August – Willie Rushton, comedian, actor and writer (died 1996)
• 20 August – Jim Bowen, comedian and host (died 2018) ^[9]
• 2 September – Derek Fowlds, actor (died 2020)
• 5 September – Dick Clement, comedy scriptwriter
• 16 September – Bella Emberg, born Sybil Dyke, comedy actress (died 2018) ^[10]
• 14 November – Alan J. W. Bell, director and producer (died 2023)
• 17 November – Peter Cook, comedian and writer (died 1995)
• 27 November – Rodney Bewes, actor (died 2017)
• 29 November – Ingrid Pitt, actress (died 2010)
• 20 December – Charles Denton, producer
• 29 December – Barbara Steele, actress
• Brian Cooke, scriptwriter
• Geoffrey Hinsliff, actor (died 2024)

See also

• 1937 in British music
• 1937 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1937

References

1. Fisher, David (30 December 2011). "1937". Chronomedia. Terra Media. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
2. "BBC Television - 21 January 1937 - BBC Genome".
3. "Television". The Observer. 11 April 1937. p. 13.
4. "Wimbledon and the BBC 1927–2017". History of the BBC. BBC. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
5. "Happened on this day – 16 September". BBC Sport. 16 September 2002. Retrieved 22 August 2006.
6. "Televised Drama; Journey's End". The Times . London. 12 November 1937. p. 14.
7. Vahimagi, Tise (1994). British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford University Press; British Film Institute. p. 8. ISBN   0-19-818336-4.
8. "Obituary: Dame Barbara Windsor". BBC News. 11 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
9. "Jim Bowen obituary". The Scotsman. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
10. "Bella Emberg: Actress who became a comedy hero thanks to Blunder Woman" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2018.