1949: The logistics of televising the Boat Race

We take it for granted nowadays that we can experience the thrill of sporting events in our living rooms, but in the early days of television it was very much a novelty.

The technical challenges may have been very different, but the aim was the same as the race would be the first to be televised in full.

"The enthusiastic viewer should feel he is almost the man on the spot," explained the Newsreel narrator.

BBC Archive: Originally broadcast on 21 March 1949.