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1953 and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth is often seen as the occasion upon which many people bought their first television or, at least, watched their first television programme. Only two years earlier a television set was quite a phenomenon, worthy of being exhibited in the Festival of Britain. Along with new innovations in cinema, television promised a new and exciting virtual world.

virtually reality

It was amazing the way that 3D was done. They had a bloke called, now what was his name, he was a quite famous television bloke, Desmond Walter Ellis... and he used to sit there with a ball on a string and this ball would go longer and longer, and you wanted to catch it, it was as clear as that. (oral history interviewee Betty Phillips, in her late 20s in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

During the 1940s the British film industry flourished and cinema-going was a popular and well established pursuit. As part of the Festival of Britain a number of documentary films exploring many of the themes of the Festival were commissioned and shown at events throughout the country. Even a special Festival feature film The Magic Box was produced as an example of British film making.

At the South Bank Exhibition new advances in film making were showcased. The Telekinema and the Television Pavilion were both very popular and are well remembered. The Telekinema seated over 400 people and could project film as well as broadcast television. The Television Pavilion was a place for experimentation where new techniques were employed to make film appear to be even more 'real'. Visitors could watch films with multiple sound tracks or 'Stereophonic Sound', which created an all round sound effect. And by wearing special polarised glasses the viewer could watch one of the unique stereoscopic films, which created the illusion of three dimensional space.

watching t.v.

And they had the television set in the foyer... and of course television was new to loads of us. So you passed that and you made all faces and everything, you know, look there's me on the telly, you know, like that. And you walked into the cinema and then you realised what a flipping fool you were because they were showing it on the big screen, and you were all sitting in there watching the idiots (oral history interviewee Betty Phillips, in her late 20s in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

The BBC first started broadcasting television in 1936 and Britain was the first country in the world to have a regular schedule of television programmes. Yet in 1951 television was still a novelty. During the week in which the Festival of Britain opened, the BBC broadcast on average five hours of intermittent programmes a day. And the Co-operative Society exhibition in Birmingham highlighted, as one of its central attractions, the display of a television set.

The inclusion of television in the Telekinema and in local exhibitions meant that for many people their first experience of watching television was a public event. Whilst the great innovation of television was bringing moving images directly into your own home, during the Festival it was an entirely communal experience. Visitors watched television together and everyone experienced the novelty of seeing each other on screen. In the not too distant future, the technology that was appreciated so communally would be labelled as a private, passive and antisocial activity.