BBC One's regional documentary series Living in 66 looks beyond the football, fashion and the music of 1966 to find out what life was like across the UK in the same year. But what was being broadcast by the BBC in 1966? And what was the BBC saying about itself?
A search of our research database, picture library, and Annual Report archive reveals some surprising things you may have forgotten about. Here's a selection of notable events, developments and excerpts which caught my eye.
1. Camberwick Green
Windy Miller, never happier than when he has the wind in his sails, featured in Camberwick Green which first appeared on the BBC in 1966
The sparse musical soundtrack of Camberwick Green has a mildly unnerving quality to it by today's standards. But, the stop animation production still maintains the programme's underlying simple elegance. The Green's first appearance was on 3 January 1966 part of the Watch with Mother strand on BBC One. The Radio Times helpfully offered mothers at the time with a handy explanation as to how the characters on screen were able to move without strings, explaining that each 15 minute episode took 3 weeks to make. The musical box sequence at the beginning and end of each episode still terrify me.
2. Softly Softly
A scene from Softly Softly: Task Force (1969) in which Hayden Wood as Forrest is apprehended by (l-r) Nigel Humphreys as P.C. Dodds, Grahame Mallard as P.C. Nesbitt, while Frank Windsor as Watt, Norman Bowler as Hawkins, and a host of slow-reacting onlookers ponder what to do next.
Softly Softly was a spin-off of the hugely popular Z-Cars, the fifth series of which had come to an end in December 1965. Softly Softly was based in a fictional area between the Midlands and Somerset; exterior shots were filmed in Rochester.
The first two series were broadcast live, but this practise was phased out for the third series, during one episode of which Tom Baker (who would later go on to play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who) makes an appearance. Softly Softly's debut was in January 1966. This later episode on YouTube clearly shows the preferred method for introducing the cast at the beginning of each episode: the strangely alluring casual glance from left to right.
The Genome blog has a post about one of Softly Softly's stars Stratford Johns.
3. Frost Report begins
David Frost. Ultra-cool.
Pictures of David Frost in the picture library make those of us too young to remember his first broadcasts on TV which we'd been born ten years earlier. The entry from the Radio Times highlighting the new programme's March debut manages to conjur up the energy and enthusiasm for the medium Frost exuded in nearly every promotional shot the BBC produced.
"Frost's reputation for ruffling feelings (founded on TWTWTW and consolidated on Not So Much A Programme) is something of a British phenomenon. In America, where he makes frequent television appearances, he is generally regarded as a 'good guy' for 'Us' against 'Them' (the baddies in positions of power). Perhaps the showers of British abuse that have from time to time descended on the well-barbered Frost head can be blamed on his youth. To be making fun, while still in his mid-twenties, of his elders and presumed betters is bound to upset our tribal conventions - especially when David zestfully brings to the task a quick wit, a keen eye for spotting the pompous ad phoney, and a sharply humorous tongue: all qualities that have helped make him something of a folk-hero to the many viewers (about 95%) who believe that there are those (about 5%) among us who could benefit from being taken down a peg or two."
4. Moving the 9pm radio news to 10pm
Frank Gillard, pictured outside BBC Television Centre in 1974.
Then Director of Sound Engineering Frank Gillard reflected on 'Radio in 1967' (which necessarily took in eight months of 1966) in the 1967 BBC Handbook. One particular section leaps out.
"Any Director of BBC radio learns one lesson very quickly indeed. It is that even relatively minor and well-justified programme changes can cause immense outbursts of indignation and wrath among listeners.
The move of the 9pm News to 10pm, the rearrangement of tea-time programmes involving the disappearance of a social hour for children only, the change of pattern when 'Lift Up Your Hearts' was given a new name and called 'Ten to Eight' are three examples in recent years which will long be remembered - ad indeed will never be forgotten y those who were at the centre of the storms they provoked.
This very marked conservatism is a characteristic of radio listening. So far, at any rate, television has been able to enjoy much more flexibility.
It is a characteristic which has always to be remembered. To a considerable extent it is a restraint. But it is also a very great stimulus and encouragement.
If people did not care about radio, no fuss would be made over it. The intense concern which is so quickly expressed when programme changes occur indicates a reassuring depth of public interest.
There are other signs. For example, the BBC's post-bag still consistently includes more correspondence on radio than on television matters. People who work in radio are continually reminded that their medium holds great responsibilities, even in the television age."
5. Planning for Colour
David Attenborough, then Controller of BBC Two, pictured in 1967, the year the channel first broadcast programmes in colour
The Postmaster General gave the go-ahead for colour on BBC Two on 3 March 1966; the BBC confirmed that colour transmissions would begin towards the end of 1967.
According to the 1967 BBC Handbook, "the BBC is now installing substantial qualities of the most modern colour equipment. Two large studios at Television Centre are being equipped with colour cameras ... two large colour outside broadcast units have been ordered so that BBC Television Outside Broadcasts Department, always pre-eminent in the world of sport, will be able to add a new dimension to the transmissions from Wimbledon, Ascot, and other events of national interest."
Elsewhere in the handbook, then Controller of BBC Two, David Attenborough wrote, "when the possibility of planning colour television programmes is suddenly presented to you, the initial response is to think excitedly of the most colourful subjects - the Chelsea Flower Show, the Changing of the Guard, the great paintings of the world. And then a single sober fact brings a sudden halt to those enthusiastic ambitions - perhaps fortunately. For many months, indeed for several years, the majority of viewers watching colour programmes will be seeing them in monochrome. Colour therefore cannot so dominate programmes that it becomes the overwhelming consideration to the neglect of other qualities. Plays must continue to be dramatic in black and white as well as in colour; events must be spectacular even when seen through monochrome spectacles. We must calculate therefore for our colour to be an enrichment rather than a replacement of the black and white image."
6. Dennis Potter's Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton wins Zita Award
Valerie Gearon as Nigel Barton's wife Anne, and Keith Barron in the lead role in Dennis Potter's play 'Vote Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton'.
Also noted in the BBC Handbook looking back on 1966 is the news that Dennis Potter's second play in the Nigel Barton series (broadcast in 1965) wins the Best Original Teleplay (Zita Award). In Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel BartonPotter's idealistic hero who moves into politics. A glittering future beckons for Nigel who, with a working-class background and an Oxford education, is the ideal Labour candidate. But vote-catching, as Nigel learns, can be a dirty business and he soon becomes sickened by the cynicism and sales talk that the role demands.
7. Television News moves to White City
World Cup '66 studio in Television Centre
Also in the 1967 BBC Handbook, "BBC Television's main production area is the BBC Television Centre at the White City in West London. This opened in 1960 and was the first centre of its kind completely designed for television use. It has six main production studios plus a number of presentation suites in constant use. Two other studios equipped for colour television are coming into service. An additional wing to Television Centre, designed primarily to house the BBC Television News operation by 1968, was pressed into advance service in 1966 as a centre for the international World Cup coverage by the BBC/ITV Consortium."
A BBC Television News editorial meeting in 1966
An artist creating on-screen graphics for BBC Television News in 1966
The duplication room in BBC Television News, in 1966
8. 1966 Award Winners
In addition to Dennis Potter's second Barton play winning an award (see above), the 1967 BBC Handbook also documents some of the other award winners for the BBC, including Play School (Prix Jeunnesse Internationale), Dr Finlay's Casebook (Zita Award for Best British Series), and Not Only But Also (Zita Award for Best British Comedy Series).
9. Cathy Come Home first broadcast
Carol White as Cathy and Ray Brooks as Reg starred in the Wednesday Play 'Cathy Come Home', broadcast in November 1966.
In the year that Prince Charles turned 18 years old and Panorama 'considered the Monarchy today', a Wednesday Play directed by Ken Loach was broadcast in November 1966 on BBC One. The Radio Times described the love story between Cathy and Reg as,
"Just a simple love story. But things don't turn out for Cathy quite like that. Events cruelly overtake her and Reg - and later their chilren. They begin a journey through Britain, but it is a Britain many of us have never seen. What happens to them we may scarcely believe. But it is happening now, and is likely to go on happening to lots of people for a long time.
Everything in tonight's play the author Jeremy Sandford has seen within his own eyes. It is something he feels deeply and his passion and his anger leap out at us from this story of two huma beings trying to make a home for themselves and their children. Trying, with humour ad love and courage, to live decent lives and their self-respect."
Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog
- Read about BBC One's regional documentaries exploring what life was like Living in 66
- Living in 66 will be broadcast on regional BBC One's across the country at 7.30pm on Thursday 1 June. All the programmes will be available on BBC iPlayer after broadcast.
