Rare films of BBC Television in the 1930s through the lens of Desmond Campbell, in conversation with Simon Vaughan, Archivist of the Alexandra Palace Television Society

“I found an old tyre, no roof, no doors and could see the sky. The smell of cats in the old banqueting rooms nearly made me sick and the whole thing looked a dreadful mess.”

That was Desmond Campbell’s first impression of Alexandra Palace, shortly before it became home to the BBC Television Service. Having worked with television pioneer John Logie Baird since 1929, Campbell was appointed the BBC’s Head of Television Lighting at Alexandra Palace, a position he held until the television service closed down in September 1939.

Throughout this pioneering period, Campbell documented his work with both a still camera and a 16mm film camera, creating an extraordinary visual record of the people, technology and production practices behind early television. His collection of around 1,200 photographs and 20 minutes of film was later donated to the Alexandra Palace Television Society by his son, Neil.

Join Simon Vaughan, Archivist of the Alexandra Palace Television Society, as he shares rare material from the Society’s archive and explores Campbell’s remarkable contribution to the formative years of BBC Television.

For the first time in public, Simon will also present a reel of 9.5mm film shot by Donald Hunter Munro during trial television programmes transmitted to the RadiOlympia exhibition in August and September 1936, shortly before the official launch of the BBC Television Service from Alexandra Palace.

Together, these rare films, dating from 1936 to 1950, offer a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of early television, revealing production practices rarely seen before and challenging long-held assumptions about the development of high-definition television.

Simon Vaughan has been Archivist of the Alexandra Palace Television Society since the early 1990s and has twice received grants from the Royal Television Society’s Shiers Trust to support archive digitisation projects.