The Times carried a fascinating archive review of the first play ever broadcast by BBC television on 14 July 1930. It was Pirandello’s Man with a Flower in his Mouth – which I now discover can actually be seen on You Tube.
The Times reviewer found it ‘very perceptively chosen’ by the Director of Productions Val Gielgud: ‘Where else shall we find a play that is almost without action, that demands no depth of perspective & that can be performed without grave loss though but one actor (&then only his head & shoulders) is to be seen at a time?’
I wonder if that ‘his’ embraces ‘her’ or if acting on television was thought too dangerous or daring an adventure at that stage for a mere female ?
I had to stop to work out what was meant by a further comment: ‘The process has still a long way to go before every subscriber to the BBC is fully satisfied by seeing & hearing plays in his own library …’
Does that mean that the BBC subscriber has library shelves well stocked with texts of plays, or that he keeps his television set in the Library rather than the drawing room? It would cetainly be too good for the servants hall, or even the butlers pantry.
Well the latter I guess - in 1930 Times writers were still scrupulous about the use of the relative pronoun.
And how interesting to learn that the cultural impact of telly was expected to be every bit as lofty as that of the telephone, in the guise of the electrophone.
That Times reviewer could not have had the slightest inkling that within 80 years all classes could be well satisfied by seeing plays & films on their own miniature telephone anywhere, even in the open country, that they happened to find themselves.
The Times reviewer found it ‘very perceptively chosen’ by the Director of Productions Val Gielgud: ‘Where else shall we find a play that is almost without action, that demands no depth of perspective & that can be performed without grave loss though but one actor (&then only his head & shoulders) is to be seen at a time?’
I wonder if that ‘his’ embraces ‘her’ or if acting on television was thought too dangerous or daring an adventure at that stage for a mere female ?
I had to stop to work out what was meant by a further comment: ‘The process has still a long way to go before every subscriber to the BBC is fully satisfied by seeing & hearing plays in his own library …’
Does that mean that the BBC subscriber has library shelves well stocked with texts of plays, or that he keeps his television set in the Library rather than the drawing room? It would cetainly be too good for the servants hall, or even the butlers pantry.
Well the latter I guess - in 1930 Times writers were still scrupulous about the use of the relative pronoun.
And how interesting to learn that the cultural impact of telly was expected to be every bit as lofty as that of the telephone, in the guise of the electrophone.
That Times reviewer could not have had the slightest inkling that within 80 years all classes could be well satisfied by seeing plays & films on their own miniature telephone anywhere, even in the open country, that they happened to find themselves.
