100 Years of the BBC

Entrance to BBC, London

BBC 100!

Founded in 1922, one of the world’s most iconic broadcasters is celebrating its 100th anniversary in October – reason for a

grand celebration! WORDS MICHEL CRUZ PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK

The British Broadcasting Corporation was there at the dawn of radio and later television. Originally founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it transitioned from private hands to become the public entity that it is today. Not only is the BBC the world’s oldest broadcaster, but it is also the largest, with over 20,000 employees, and was a pioneer in the field of radio and later television services, adding news, sports, cultural, educational, entertainment and later also dedicated children’s programming and online platforms as it evolved with the times. ›

The BBC News has reported on some of the most momentous happenings in the world

The BBC World Service long connected different parts of the British Empire, just as its news reels united Great Britain during the Second World War and helped give it resolve in difficult times. The motto, to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ has served as the inspiration for 100 years of sometimes dramatic news and sports coverage, television programmes, and also a variety of radio services both localised and international. TV coverage later also added a regional tone, while the BBC became an international source of information and entertainment that today broadcasts in 28 languages.

MEMORABLE BROADCASTING

In the early days of programming, the BBC helped to popularise radio plays and later radio music broadcasts, with the Royal Christmas Message becoming a longstanding tradition that is maintained today, and the wartime period marked by rousing patriotic newsreels and 33 major wartime speeches by Winston Churchill. By then, early television coverage had begun, and it was to form the basis for three quarters of a century of memorable productions that have spanned the 1950s to the present day. In 1960, five years after the introduction of commercial competition in the form of ITV, the BBC moved into the Television Centre at White City, a site that would be its headquarters for 53 years, until the opening of the new Broadcasting House in 2013. The studios within the Television Centre complex would produce some of the most iconic programmes not just in the UK, but internationally, including radio shows such as The Archers and Desert Island Discs, and the television classics Blue Peter and Doctor Who.

Successive generations of teenagers were glued to the TV for Top of the Pops, which chronicled several decades of music trends, while for grown-ups such programmes as Morecombe & Wise, Faulty Towers, Grange Hill and later also Eastenders became a form of constancy in a changing world. That said, the BBC has been quick to change with the times over the past three decades, and now works hard to make its productions politically correct and inclusive, as well as socially focused, as in the case of Comic Relief, and the highly popular Strictly Come Dancing. ›

BBC Scotland on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow

BBC TV Apprentice winner Sian Gabbidon

David Dimbleby a stalwart of the BBC Terry Wogan

Many such programmes have been exported around the world, and this division not only produces around a quarter of the corporation’s revenue, but also drives much of its creativity. This October, the BBC and all who hold it dear look back with pride at 100 years of virtually uninterrupted broadcasting, when the BBC chronicled the flow of the years, the coming and going of trends, the rise of new talents and the major sporting, cultural and political events not just within the UK but across the globe. In 2022, Britain and the world celebrate BBC 100.

LOOKING BACK IN CELEBRATION

Do you remember the royal weddings of 1981 and 2011, the coverage of the Falklands War in 1982, Live Aid in 1985 and Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997? They are just some of the highlights the BBC shared with the world, adding to an impressively long list of landmark productions that include the likes of Only Fools and Horses, The Fast Show, Later… with Jools Holland, Blackadder, Match of the Day, the BBC News and so many more. Celebrating BBC 100, Britain and the world look back at a century full of information, education and above all, entertainment.

BBC 100 is a celebration of one hundred years of fantastic content and moments, from the first television play in 1930 and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 to the first colour broadcast in 1967 and BBC iPlayer 40 years later. To mark the occasion, the BBC has commissioned special sports, events and landmark programmes for TV, radio and online content, including the Women’s Euros, the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup, as

well as music and radio festivals, new dramas and comedies, Frozen Planet II and the return of BBC Three.

There will be special themed editions of Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Top Gear, MasterChef, The Apprentice, Antiques Roadshow, David Dimbleby’s BBC: A Very British History, BBC’s First 50 Years

Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood & Len Goodman

The Blue Peter garden, designed in 1974 by Percy Thrower Tess Daly and Bruce Forsyth of Strictly Come Dancing

and Horrible Histories: BBC’s Big Birthday Bonanza, in what is a year-long celebration that builds up to a climax in October. 100 years of our BBC offers a unique chance to relive a century through its timeline, as well as highlighting 100 Objects, 100 Faces and 100 Voices from a century of BBC production.

The 100 objects focus on both iconic BBC items you will immediately recognise and rather obscure ones you may not. The 100 faces and voices will evoke memories, rouse nostalgia and more than a little joy, and through the likes of Sir David Attenborough, Shirley Bassey, Judi Dench, Bruce Forsyth, Ester Rantzen, Terry Wogan, Tony Blackburn, Una Marson and many others, viewers and listeners will be able to cast back to the time of their choosing and relive their favourite moments from untold hours of highlights.

Here’s to the next century for the world’s longest-serving broadcaster!

i www.bbc.co.uk/100