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Vera McKechnie
Vera McKechnie (born 1927) is a retired British presenter who was one of the first presenters at the start of BBC Children's Television in the early 1950s. Television career McKechnie began her career when the BBC resumed TV broadcasts after the Second World War. On BBC Children’s Television she narrated the earliest live editions of ''Andy Pandy'' from 1950, in which she told a story as it was acted out by string puppets. The programme was aimed at very young children under primary school starting age of five years at the time. The programme was broadcast during the school day and part of a series of five known as ''Watch with Mother'', one of which one was broadcast each weekday. When the broadcasts began, the main BBC transmitters only covered London and the southeast from Alexandra Palace, Birmingham and the Midlands from Sutton Coldfield, and Manchester and the northwest from Holme Moss. She was a TV in-vision announcer from 1955 until 1960, and later worked for BBC Childre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Pandy
''Andy Pandy'' is a British children's television series that first appeared on BBC Television in summer 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. A revival of the show was made in 2002. The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazines '' Robin'' and ''Pippin''. Original 1950 and 1970 versions The original version of ''Andy Pandy'' premiered on BBC TV in 1950, on either 11 July or 20 June, as part of the ''For the Children'' strand (later ''Watch with Mother'') narrated by Maria Bird who also narrated the black & white 1950s original broadcasts of Flower Pot Men, The Woodentops and Bizzy Lizzie. Initially it was broadcast live, but it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. 26 fifteen-minute episodes were filmed on 16mm [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watch With Mother
''Watch with Mother'' was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a development of BBC radio's equivalent ''Listen with Mother'', which had begun two years earlier. In accordance with its intended target audience of pre-school children viewing with their mothers, ''Watch with Mother'' was initially broadcast between 3:45 pm and 4:00 pm, post-afternoon nap and before the older children came home from school. The choice of ''Watch with Mother'' for the title of the series was intended "to deflect fears that television might become a nursemaid to children and encourage bad mothering". Show cycles Although ''Andy Pandy'' had been regularly broadcast every week since mid-1950 (normally on Tuesdays), and was joined by ''Flower Pot Men'' in December 1952 (normally on Wednesdays), the name ''Watch with Mother'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Originally built by John Johnson and Alfred Meeson, it opened in 1873 but following a fire two weeks after its opening, was rebuilt by Johnson. Intended as "The People's Palace" and often referred to as "Ally Pally", its purpose was to serve as a public centre of recreation, education and entertainment; North London's counterpart to the Crystal Palace in South London. At first a private venture, in 1900, the owners planned to sell it and Alexandra Park for development. A group of neighbouring local authorities managed to acquire it. An Act of Parliament created the Alexandra Palace and Park Trust. The Act required the trustees to maintain the building and park and make them available for the free use and recreation of the public forever. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sutton Coldfield Transmitting Station
The Sutton Coldfield transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. In terms of population covered, it is the third most important transmitter in the UK, after Crystal Palace in London and Winter Hill near Bolton. History On 17 December 1949, it became the first television transmitter to broadcast outside London and the Home Counties, bringing BBC Television to viewers outside of the south-east of England for the first time. In 1949 the site housed Britain's first post-war Marconi-EMI band 1 405 line television transmitter. When it was taken out of service in 1981 it was the oldest working television transmitter in the world. For most of 1965, it had a low-power BBC2 service; this was turned onto full power on 4 October 1965; the East Midlands had no BBC2 service until Waltham began transmissions on 31 August 1968. A new mast was built around 1983 to replace the original structure, primarily to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holme Moss Transmitting Station
The Holme Moss transmitting station is a radio transmitting station at Holme Moss in West Yorkshire, England. The mast provides VHF coverage of both FM and DAB to a wide area around the mast including Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. History Holme Moss transmitting station was built by British Insulated Callender's Cables with John Laing & Son acting as sub-contractors for the foundations. It became the BBC's third public television transmitter, launched on 12 October 1951. Of historic and technical interest, this operated on the 405 line VHF system, with black and white transmissions originally on British System A, Channel 2, with vision 51.75 MHz, 45 kW and sound 48.25 MHz, 12 kW. The mast survived until the end of the Band I TV broadcasts in 1985, with a replacement mast being constructed, adjacent, in 1984. In early 1986, there was concern that heavy blocks of ice could bring down the old mast - February 1986 had b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Picture Book (TV Series)
''Picture Book'' is a BBC children's TV series created by Freda Lingstrom, first broadcast in 1955. It was the Monday programme in the ''Watch with Mother'' cycle. Initially introduced by Patricia Driscoll, the programme encouraged children to make things; Driscoll's catch phrase was "Do you think you could do this? – I am sure you could if you tried". She left the programme in 1957 to play the part of Maid Marian in the ITV series ''The Adventures of Robin Hood''. Patricia Driscoll's episodes were repeated until 1963 and was replaced by a new series of episodes with Vera McKechnie. The programme ran until December 1965 and replaced in the Monday slot by Camberwick Green in January 1966. The show's opening theme tune was Badinerie, the final movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. Each Monday, Driscoll or McKechnie would open the Picture Book at a relevant page. Sometimes it would be shown to the camera at a distance, making the pages' co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios was a film, and later television, studio complex in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The complex was built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915. It was situated in Lime Grove, a residential street in Shepherd's Bush, and when it first opened was described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country solely for the production of films". Many Gainsborough Pictures films were made here from the early 1930s. Its sister studio was Islington Studios, also used by Gainsborough; films were often shot partly at Islington and partly at Lime Grove. In 1949, the complex was purchased by the BBC, who used it for television broadcasts until 1991. It was demolished in 1993. Gaumont-British Picture Corporation In 1922, Isidore Ostrer along with brothers Mark and Maurice, acquired control of Gaumont-British from its French parent. In 1932 a major redevelopment of Lime Grove Studios was completed, creating one of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, its focus is the shopping area of Shepherd's Bush Green, with the Westfield London shopping centre a short distance to the north. The main thoroughfares are Uxbridge Road, Goldhawk Road and Askew Road, all with small and mostly independent shops, pubs and restaurants. The Loftus Road football stadium in Shepherd's Bush is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 2011, the population of the area was 39,724. The district is bounded by Hammersmith to the south, Holland Park and Notting Hill to the east, Harlesden and Kensal Green to the north and by Acton and Chiswick to the west. White City forms the northern part of Shepherd's Bush. Shepherd's Bush comprises the Shepherd's Bush Green, Askew, College Park & Old Oak, and Wormholt and White City wards ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roedean School
Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sussex Downs, on a cliff overlooking Brighton Marina and the English Channel. The school incorporates dance studios, music classrooms, a 320-seat theatre, a heated indoor swimming pool, a golf course, a private tunnel to the beach, a farm and a chapel, as well as a range of workshops, studios, laboratories and sports pitches. It is also well-provisioned with a variety of classrooms. Roedean School is a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). The ''Good Schools Guide'' stated that the "School has a healthy spirit and much to offer." The Independent Schools Inspectorate rated Roedean as Excellent in all areas (highest category) in its most recent inspection (March 2016). History Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadstairs
Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of about 25,000. Situated between Margate and Ramsgate, Broadstairs is one of Thanet's seaside resorts, known as the "jewel in Thanet's crown". The town's coat of arms's Latin motto is ''Stella Maris'' (" Star of the Sea"). The name derives from a former flight of steps in the chalk cliff, which led from the sands up to the 11th-century shrine of St Mary on the cliff's summit. The town spreads from Haine Road in the west to Kingsgate (named after the landing of King Charles II in 1683), a hamlet in St Peter parish in the north, and to Dumpton in the south (named after the yeoman Dudeman who farmed there in the 13th century). The hamlet of Reading (formerly ''Reden'' or ''Redyng'') Street was established by Flemish refugees in the 17th cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the French department of Pas-de-Calais across the Strait of Dover. The county town is Maidstone. It is the fifth most populous county in England, the most populous non-Metropolitan county and the most populous of the home counties. Kent was one of the first British territories to be settled by Germanic tribes, most notably the Jutes, following the withdrawal of the Romans. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the oldest cathedral in England, has been the seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the conversion of England to Christianity that began in the 6th century with Saint Augustine. Rochester Cathedral in Medway is England's second-oldest cathedral. Located between London and the Strait of Dover, which separates England from mainla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Margaret's School, Bushey
St Margaret's School is an independent boarding and day school co-educational aged 2–18 in Bushey, Hertfordshire. As well as day places, the school offers boarding options for pupils from year 7 (age 11) and is situated in of countryside close to London. The school is currently in the process of becoming co-educational. There are currently male students in the junior school, and in sixth form. St Margaret's is planning to go fully co-educational by 2022. History In 1749 the Society of Stewards and Subscribers for Maintaining and Educating Poor Orphans of Clergymen was set up in London and charitable donations to it were made by wealthy people, including the royal family and politicians. In 1760 Princess Amelia gave £100 and in 1791 George III donated £500, being part of the proceeds of one of Mr Handel's musical performances in Westminster Abbey. A school for 20 girls was set up in a house in Southwark, London, and the boys were sent to an existing school in Thirsk, Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
