@APTSArchive
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~ Preserving the televisual past for the digital future ~ Official Twitter channel of the Alexandra Palace Television Society. All enquiries to [email protected]
Derby, Derbyshire
Joined March 2009
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The Desmond Campbell Collection contains over 1,200 photos of BBC TV from 1937 to 1951.
Campbell stored the negs in his garden shed for many years, where they deteriorated.
APTS has restored these images over several years - this channel is the result.
APTS Archive retweeted
This December the Heritage Trust are hosting a candlelit "Wine & Say Cheese" fundraiser in our Victorian photography studio.
See the building bathed in candlelight — tickets are limited; so watch for updates. #WineAndSayCheese #Fundraising #CandleLight #PhotographyByCandleLight
Looking forward to presenting film footage from the Alexandra Palace Television Society Archive on 2nd November of pre & post war television from the former studios at the palace.
#OTD - 1 Sep 1939.
Ahead of the impending declaration of #WWII on 3 Sep 1939, the #BBCTelevisionService closed down.
No closing announcement was made.
Contrary to claims, the #MickeyMouse cartoon was shown in full, with the transmitters not being powered down for another 20+ minutes.
APTS Archive retweeted
Your chance to see behind the scenes at the world's oldest continuously operating photography studio for #HeritageOpenDays 2026.
We’ll explore #EverydayHistories of people who sat for photographs at our studio.
Booking essential: call 01332 345224 or email [email protected]
@virginmedia we notified you in early July that we would be moving on 31st. You deemed our new address as unserviceable & therefore there would be no early termination fee & to return the kit to you.
I have made in excess of 10 phone calls with your moving home team - amount to several hours getting contradictory information every time I've phoned, depending on who I spoke with.
On Wednesday you took £1,070 from our bank account, causing us to become overdrawn, despite assurances from your moving home team that there was an extension on our account in order to give us time to return the kit, & no early termination fee would be charged. The kit was returned to you on Wednesday morning.
Upon phoning yesterday (yet again), I was dealt with someone that might as well have been a robot, he's inability to listen & constant repeating set phrases over & over again was of little help & particularly annoying.
You have made the issue of moving home particularly difficult and stressful, which for a company of your size I find inexcusable.
I emailed your moving home team on Tuesday & yesterday yet have still not received a reply, despite being told in a phone call my email would be dealt with as a matter or urgency!
I'm resorting to public exposure in the vain hope there will be some action & you will expedite this matter.
Quick update following my post -
I did have a DM discussion with VirginMedia.
Apparently all refunds are process via cheque payments and posted to you - and I’ve got to wait up to 45 days - yes 45 days for the cheque.
If I’ve not received it by then I’ve got to contact them again and they will investigate why - probably waiting another 45 days.
This is disgusting behaviour @virginmedia, despite it being so called company policy.
You took £1,070 from our account despite assurance the equipment return date had been extended, causing us to be overdrawn, yet you now hang on to our money for up to 45 days!
It doesn’t take 45 days for a computer to print a cheque!
APTS Archive retweeted
August marks 100 years since the birth of Pat Coombs ... look out for my article in Yours Retro magazine at the end of the month and competition details for a signed copy of her authorised biography @Classicbritcom @britishco
A unique opportunity to see behind the scene of a Victorian photography that has changes very little in the past 170+ years - and it’s FREE to look round.
Booking essential to secure your place on a tour - 17th to 19th September.
Tour our unique Victorian photographic studio as part of #HeritageOpenDays, looking how everyday lives became #EverydayMemories. #HOD2026 #HeritageOpenDays #DerbyHODs #Winters1852 #WWWinterHeritageTrust #WWWinterLtd
Such awful news today, #RonnieLeDrew, best known as the man behind #Zippy in the iconic ITV children’s show #Rainbow, has passed away.
A statement from his family was issued this morning.
"We’re devastated to announce that Dad passed away this morning, after a brief illness. We’re all grieving and sorry for our loss of such a sweet beautiful man.
John, Liz and family"
Sending all best wishes to his family for the loss of such a lovely man, and someone I was fortunate to be able to call a friend.
#OTD 26 July 1937
BBC #TelevisionDemonstrationFilm was transmitted for the first time.
It would be transmitted another 1277 times between 26th July 1937 to 21st October 1939.
Viewers wrote letters to the #RadioTimes, asking for something else rather than the dreaded Demonstration Film, which they had got to learn by heart.
The link is to a very poor copy of the Dem Film, which currently we don't have uploaded on your YouTube channel.
#BBCTV #pre-war television #Alexandra Palace
buff.ly/tB08aBd
#OTD 26 July 1937.
The #BBCTelevisionService at #AlexandraPalace closed-down on this day, for three weeks, to carry out an overhaul of the equipment.
For the next three weeks only test transmissions were broadcast. Views of Alexandra Palace, the #DemonstrationFilm and Newreels were transmitted.
#OutsideBroadcasts of the #DavisCup from #Wimbledon were transmitted on 26 & 27 July.
#OTD - 20 July 1953
The Good Old Days began on #BBCTelevision light entertainment programme produced by #BarneyColehan, it ran until 31 December 1983.
It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the era performed in the style of the original artistes.
The audience dressed in period costume and joined in the singing, especially #DownAtTheOldBullAndBush which closed the show each week. The show was compered throughout its whole run by #LeonardSachs, who introduced the acts from a desk situated at the side of the stage.
In the course of its run it featured about 2,000 performers.
#OTD - 18th July 1953
The first episode of The #QuatermassExperiment took to the screens.
Broadcast live from studio A at @Yourallypally, written by #NigelKneale, & directed by #RudolphCartier the series changed TV Science Fiction forever.
This absolutely delight is presented by BabelColour.
If you are interested in photographic history and Autochromes, the earliest form of colour photography, then follow @StuartHumphryes.
His channel is an absolute joy - and his enhancement of original images is sublime. His images are not colourised, they are restored and enhanced original colour Autochromes, and he also posts gems such as this colour film from 1908!
I've pieced together this incredibly rare & precious Edwardian colour movie, filmed 118 years ago at Upton Manor Farm in Southwick, England. This is the Autumn Harvest of 1908, showing rural life in the UK just 7 years after the end of the Victoria Era, when our life and work was considerably less mechanised.
This is amongst the earliest British colour films, which was made via Kinemacolour, developed by George Albert Smith in 1906. It employed a spinning 2-colour filter system of red and green filters to replicate "full colour". The separate colour frames line up pretty well, except fo shots of lateral movement, such as the horse's legs where the individual coloured filters become much more apparent.
The music I've used is the Largo movement from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World", which is rather ironic considering the film shows us scenes of the Old World long gone.
Watch until the end, which leaves us a charming little love story. Though perhaps she waved her fellow off to War on the Western Front 6 years later...
(One of my hobbies is to collect old colour film footage, and if you enjoy this example I might share a few extra videos on my account)
Great to see items being returned and that Film Is Fabulous plan to assist in future research by holding on to the film cans and paperwork of the items they return to the Archives.
#OTD 14th July 1930
First play to be shown on British experimental broadcast television - "The Man with the Flower in his Mouth" by #LuigiPirandello.
First production to have any details published in the #RadioTimes.
#TheManWithTheFlowerInHisMouth #THWTFIHM #FirstTelevisionPlay
#OTD 11 July 1962
The first live transatlantic tv transmissions via the Telstar satellite are received at Goonhilly Earth station in Cornwall and broadcast live on BBC tv.
buff.ly/tm1uO0w
#Telstar #TransatlanticTransmission #Goonhilly #BBCTelevision #BBCTV
#OTD - 11 July 1950 Andy Pandy began on BBC Television as part of the For the Children strand. Andy Pandy was created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Bird wrote and presented the programme, coaxing Andy out of his basket to dance and play, and encouraging the children at home to join in.
Andy himself never spoke. Audrey Atterbury operated Andy via his very visible strings, and songs were sung by Janet Ferber. Every programme ended with the song "Time to go home", as Andy waved goodbye and returned to his basket.
Initially it was broadcast live, but it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. 26 fifteen-minute episodes were filmed on 16 mm around 1952 and repeated continuously until 1969.
#AndyPandy #ChildrensTelevision #ChildrensTV
#OTD - 8 July 1952
The BBC broadcast the first live, over-the-air television transmissions from Paris to the UK, an event famously known as "Paris Week." Because France and Britain used incompatible broadcasting standards, engineers relied on an early BBC standards converter to bridge the gap.
#ParisWeek #Eurovision
