Schedule:Spring 1964
Movement
(ATV, Mondays 3:04pm + rpts)
Auf Deutsch
(ATV, Tuesdays 3:28pm + rpts)
Rhythm & Melody
(Home Service, Thursdays 11:00am)
Prose & Verse Readings
(Home Service, Mondays 2:30pm)
Time and Tune
(Home Service, Wednesdays 11:20am)
Science & the Community
(Home Service, Thursdays 2:20pm)
History Work Units
(Home Service, Tuesdays 2:20pm)
BBC Radio
Schools programmes on BBC radio.
Third Network
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 09:00 | ||||||||||||||||
| 9:05 Keeping Things in Order | 9:05 People, Money and Industry | 9:05 People, Money and Industry (rpt) | ||||||||||||||
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| 09:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 09:30 | 9:32 Religious Service for Primary Schools | 9:32 An Act of Worship | ||||||||||||||
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| 09:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10:00 | ||||||||||||||||
Home Service
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 09:00 | ||||||||||||||||
| 9:05 Religious Service for Primary Schools(rpt of Tuesday) | 9:05 An Act of Worship(rpt of Wednesday) | |||||||||||||||
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| 09:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 09:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 09:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 9:55 The World of Work | 9:55 Over To You | 9:55 Music and Movement Stage 2(Rachel Percival) | 9:55 Music and Movement Stage 1(Rachel Percival) (rpt) | 9:55 Music and Movement Stage 2(Rachel Percival) (rpt) | ||||||||||||
| 10:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10:30 | 10:30 French for Sixth Forms | 10:30 Early Stages in French | 10:30 Radiovision Experiment(episodes of ''Looking at Things'', ''History Work Units'' and ''Geography'') | 10:30 Intermediate GermanDie Familie Schwarz, etc | ||||||||||||
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| 10:45 | 10:45 Intermediate French | |||||||||||||||
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| 11:00 | 11:00 Singing Together(William Appleby) | 11:00 Music and Movement Stage 1(Rachel Percival) | 11:00 Junior Science Your Changing Body / Sound | 11:00 Rhythm and Melody(Gladys Whitred) | 11:00 How Things Began | |||||||||||
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| 11:15 | ||||||||||||||||
| 11:20 Time and TuneThe Nutcracker Suite | 11:20 Geography | 11:20 Listening and Writing David & Broccoli / An Episode of Sparrows | ||||||||||||||
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| 11:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 11:40 Orchestral ConcertsBeethoven / An Italian Straw Hat / Bartok / Britten | 11:40 The Christian Religion and its PhilosophyThe Phenomenon of Man / Has History a Meaning? | 11:40 Current Affairs | 11:40 The Modern WorldWork in 20th Century Britain / The New China | 11:40 General Science Electricity & Magnetism / Matter All Around | 11:40 Talks for Sixth FormsMarxism / Problems of Ethics | |||||||||||
| 11:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 12:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:00 | 14:00 People, Places and Things | 14:00 Stories From World History | 14:00 Let's Join In | 14:00 Adventures in English Tom's Midnight Garden, etc | 14:00 Travel Talks | |||||||||||
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| 14:15 | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:20 Music Box(Gordon Reynolds) | 14:20 History Work UnitsUnit 3: Britain, Workshop of the World / Unit 4: The Middle Ages 1135-1327 | 14:20 Books, Plays, Poems Everyman / The Birds / Macbeth | 14:20 Science and the Community Science & Clothes / Science & the Home / Science & the Oil Industry | 14:20 The Bible and LifeA Life of Saint Paul / They Came To a City | ||||||||||||
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| 14:30 | 14:30 Prose and Verse Readings | |||||||||||||||
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| 14:40 Music, Movement and Mime(Glyn Harris) | 14:40 Adventures in Music | 14:40 Stories from British History | 14:40 Stories and Rhymes | |||||||||||||
| 14:45 | 14:45 Nature | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | ||||||||||||||||
Northern Ireland Home Service
| MONDAY
as England. |
TUESDAY
as England except: 11:20-11:40 Today and Yesterday in Northern Ireland: Queen Elizabeth and the O'Neills / A City Doctor etc |
WEDNESDAY
as England. |
THURSDAY
as England. |
FRIDAY
as England. |
Scottish Home Service
| MONDAY
as England except: 9:55-10:15 Physical Training 11:20-11:40 Living in Scotland |
TUESDAY
as England except: 9:35-9:55 Religious Service for Primary Schools 9:55-10:15 Stories from Scottish History 11:20-11:40 My Country |
WEDNESDAY
as England except: 9:55-10:15 Exploring Scotland |
THURSDAY
as England except: 9:05-9:28 Religious Service for Primary Schools (Scottish) 11:40-12:00 Scottish Heritage |
FRIDAY
as England. |
Welsh Home Service
| DYDD LLUN
as England except: 14:00-14:20 History of Wales |
DYDD MAWRTH
as England except: 11:00-11:20 The Story of Wales 11:20-11:40 Sain, Cerdd a Chân (Music, Notation and Song) |
DYDD MERCHER
as England except: 14:20-14:40 Talks for sixth forms |
DYDD IAU
as England except: 11:40-12:00 Second Stages in Welsh |
DYDD GWENER
as England except: 9:05-9:28 Religious Service for Welsh Schools 9:55-10:15 Rhymi a Chân (Rhyme and Song) 11:20-11:40 Early Stages in Welsh |
Notes
Programmes ran from Monday 13th January to Friday 20th March 1964. There were no half term repeats, so there were a total of 10 weeks of broadcasts.
The programmes broadcast at 9:05am on the Third Network were specifically for technical colleges. The first transmissions of the religious services for schools were also broadcast on the new Third Network, so that other programmes could be broadcast on the Home Service. However the Scottish religious service for primary schools was broadcast on the Scottish Home Service on Tuesday mornings - there were no broadcasts of the Third Network over Scottish transmitters at that time on Tuesday mornings.
Radiovision
Image:Radiovision ad December 1963.jpg|Advert for the first Radiovision broadcasts The first formal Radiovision broadcasts in Britain took place this term, with the Radiovision Experiment broadcast on Thursday mornings for six weeks (after the six weeks were up, Music While You Work was broadcast in that slot, instead of more schools programmes).
"Radiovision" basically describes a radio broadcast which is accompanied by pictures - distributed to schools as either an 8mm filmstrip (initially costing 30 shillings) or, later, a set of slides. The radio programme gives a commentary on the slides and use them as a visual aid, for example "(look at) this dartboard. Can you see the curved lines? They're called circles," or "if you had X-ray eyes, this is what you could see inside that lady's tummy. A young baby, just about ready to be born."[1] There are also teacher's notes which give the full script of the broadcast, frame by frame, to indicate when to turn to the next picture. Although it was possible to view the pictures while the radio programme was being broadcast, it was always recommended to tape record the programme and play it back later - this explains the decision to broadcast the experimental radiovision programmes from three different series on different subjects, Looking at Things, Geography and History Work Units, in the same timeslot this term, which could normally by expected to present insurmountable timetable difficulties for schools.
Radiovision allowed teachers to have a level of control over their lesson's content that they could never have with schools television in the days when TV could not be recorded and had to be viewed as it was broadcast. A pupil who took part in some of the BBC's pilot experiments with radiovision before the broadcasts began said "it was much better than an ordinary film because you had longer to study the picture. You look at a moving film and then... it's gone!"[2] Radiovision filmstrips were also always in full colour, while it would be another decade before full colour came to BBC schools television. This term's Geography radiovision broadcasts took particular advantage of this - the programmes concerned England's oolithic limestone belt and concentrated on the different coloured layers of rock in ore workings.
Formal radiovision first started in France in the 1950s. It was taken up by other countries - including the Netherlands and especially by Sveriges Radio in Sweden which always had a close relationship with the BBC Schools department - and demonstrated at an educational broadcasting conference held in 1961 where it was observed by the BBC. The first BBC radiovision broadcast was Courtship and Marriage in Painting in the series Looking at Things, on 16th January 1964 - an experimental programme using dramatised stories of courtship and marriage to invoke the paintings displayed on the filmstrip[1] and suggest "the dreams the artists had before they painted their pictures". Teachers could then go back through the filmstrip describing the boring "historical and artistic context" of each picture if they wished[2].
There were more radiovision programmes in spring and autumn 1965, before radiovision became a regular part of the BBC's offering to schools from 1966-7. It then continued successfully for over 20 years, and later on radiovision packs were sold to schools containing cassettes and filmstrips so the broadcast component became less necessary. The BBC's last radiovision broadcasts were for the series Looking at Nature: Science Naturally and GCSE Drama Resources in the summer term 1990.
BBC Television
Schools programmes on BBC TV.
England
Broadcasts on BBC Television (there was still officially only 1 BBC television channel).
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
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| 09:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 9:10 Engineering Science | 9:10 Engineering Science (rpt) | 9:10 Engineering Science (rpt) | ||||||||||||||
| 09:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 09:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 9:40 Pure MathematicsYear 1 | 9:40 Indoors and OutScience in the Street / Science in the Garden | 9:40 Pure MathematicsYear 2 (rpt) | 9:40 Merry-Go-Round (rpt) | 9:40 Pure MathematicsYear 2 (rpt) | ||||||||||||
| 09:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10:00 | 10:02 Pure MathematicsYear 2 | 10:02 Discovering Science | 10:02 Pure MathematicsYear 2 | 10:02 For Sixth FormsRevolution in Industry / The Human Species (rpt) | 10:02 Middle School Mathematics (rpt) | |||||||||||
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| 10:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 10:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 11:00 | ||||||||||||||||
| 11:05 Television ClubThe Brents | 11:05 Going to Work (rpt) | 11:05 Looking at the United States (rpt) | 11:05 Science and LifeHow Your Body Works (rpt) | 11:05 Spotlight (rpt) | ||||||||||||
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| 11:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 11:30 | 11:30 For Sixth FormsRevolution in Industry / The Human Species | |||||||||||||||
| 11:35 Merry-Go-Round | 11:35 Discovering Science (rpt) | 11:35 SignpostOur New House / Up in the Sky / Discoveries and Changes (rpt) | 11:35 Indoors and OutScience in the Street / Science in the Garden (rpt) | |||||||||||||
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| 11:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 12:00 | 12:00 Pure MathematicsYear 1 | |||||||||||||||
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| 12:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 12:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:00 | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:05 Going to Work | 14:05 Looking at the United States | 14:05 Science and LifeHow Your Body Works | 14:05 Spotlight | 14:05 Television ClubThe Brents (rpt) | ||||||||||||
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| 14:15 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:27 SignpostOur New House / Up in the Sky / Discoveries and Changes | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:30 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:45 | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:50 Middle School Mathematics | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:00 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 15:15 | ||||||||||||||||
Wales
Programmes from the Welsh transmitters, Holme Moss and Sutton Coldfield.
| DYDD LLUN
as England. |
DYDD MAWRTH
as England. |
DYDD MERCHER
as England. |
DYDD IAU
as England. |
DYDD GWENER
as England plus: 10:25 Dyn a'i Waith |
Other regional variations - if there were any - not known.
Notes
Programmes ran from Monday 13th January to Friday 20th March 1964, giving 10 weeks of schools broadcasts with no repeats for half term. Engineering Science, a series for colleges, resumed its run from the autumn term on Tuesday 7th January.
Out of School
A selection of schools programmes were shown during the Christmas holidays 1963 for the benefit of parents and teachers. Rather than a direct preview of the spring term offerings, all of the programmes were repeats of those shown during the previous two years. The Radio Times billed it as "an opportunity to see some of the programmes which BBC Television provides for schools throughout the year."
The Out of School programmes were shown at 12:15-13:00 each day.
- Monday 30th December 1963
- programmes for younger children: A Year in the Country and People of Many Lands.
- Tuesday 31st December 1963
- programmes for secondary schools: Middle School Mathematics and Spotlight (repeat of a topical programme from 1962).
- Wednesday 1st January 1964
- primary schools: Merry-Go-Round and Signpost.
- Thursday 2nd January 1964
- secondary schools: Science and Life and The Orchestra.
- Friday 3rd January 1964
- primary schools: Indoors and Out and Making Music (the final programme from the celebrated first series of Making Music, with a full performance of The Midnight Thief)
Independent Television
Schools programmes on ITV.
Associated-Rediffusion
Broadcasts to London and the South East of England.
| MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | |||||||||||||
| | | | | |||||||||||||
| 14:30 | ||||||||||||||||
| 14:35 Man to Man: A Study of Communication | 14:35 Ici La France | 14:35 Story BoxBooks / Nature | 14:35 The World Around UsPeople at Work (rpt) | 14:35 Afternoon Edition (rpt) | ||||||||||||
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| 14:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 14:57 The Tools of Science (rpt) | 14:57 Notre Ville | |||||||||||||||
| 15:00 | 14:59 DramaShe Stoops to Conquer / The Playboy of the Western World | |||||||||||||||
| 15:04 The World Around UsPeople at Work | 15:04 Story BoxBooks / Nature (rpt) | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:15 | 15:16 Afternoon Edition | |||||||||||||||
| 15:21 DramaShe Stoops to Conquer / The Playboy of the Western World (rpt) | ||||||||||||||||
| 15:26 The Tools of Science | 15:26 Notre Ville (rpt) | |||||||||||||||
| 15:30 | 15:28 Discovery | |||||||||||||||
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| 15:45 | ||||||||||||||||
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| 16:00 | ||||||||||||||||
ATV Midlands
| MONDAY
as London except: 13:03-13:23 Ici La France (rpt) 15:04-15:24 Movement |
TUESDAY
as London except: 13:30-13:50 Movement (rpt) 15:28-15:43 Auf Deutsch |
WEDNESDAY
as London except: 13:30-13:45 Auf Deutsch (rpt) 14:57-15:17 Ici La France 15:21-15:41 Onze Rue de la Gare |
THURSDAY
as London except: 13:30-13:50 Onze Rue de la Gare (rpt) 15:16-15:36 Chemistry for Sixth Forms 15:40-16:00 Onze Rue de la Gare (rpt) |
FRIDAY
as London except: 15:26-15:46 Movement (rpt) |
Granada Television
| MONDAY
as London. |
TUESDAY
as London, but excluding Ici La France. |
WEDNESDAY
as London except: 14:55 Discovery (rpt) 15:25 Man to Man (rpt) |
THURSDAY
as London. |
FRIDAY
as London. |
Granada billed their schools programmes with slightly different start times from the rest of the country, both in the Northern edition of the TV Times and in newspaper listings. For instance on Mondays the schools programmes in London and other areas started at 2:35pm, 3:04pm and 3:26pm. But Granada billed these same programmes as starting at 2:35pm, 3:00pm and 3:25pm. I believe that this is simply a case of Granada billing the programmes with 'neat and tidy' start times at five-minute intervals instead of the more accurate to-the-minute timings used elsewhere, and that in fact the programmes probably did start at the same time throughout the country.
other regions
Schools programmes were carried by most, if not all, of the other ITV broadcasters too: Anglia, TWW (Television Wales & the West), Teledu Cymru (Wales West & North Television), Westward, Southern, Tyne Tees, Scottish, Grampian and Ulster Television. I am not certain whether Channel Television and Border Television carried them this term[3].
Going by bare-bones newspaper listings, I believe the ATV programmes shown during the 1pm hour each day were also taken by TWW and Teledu Cymru, but other regional companies began their school broadcasts around 2:30pm.
Out of School
Schools programmes to be shown during the spring term (and one repeat from autumn 1963) were previewed during the 1963 Christmas holidays for the benefit of teachers and parents. Schedules were different in each region according to the programmes scheduled to be shown in the spring. I only know the schedules for Associated-Rediffusion in London and ATV in the Midlands:
The Out of School programmes began at 14:30 each day and continued until around 15:30.
- Monday 30th December 1963
- A-R: Man To Man, The World Around Us and Story Box.
- ATV: Man To Man, The World Around Us and Onze Rue de la Gare.
- Tuesday 31st December 1963
- A-R: Drama and Story Box.
- ATV: Drama, Chemistry for Sixth Forms and Auf Deutsch.
- Thursday 2nd January 1964
- A-R: The Tools of Science, Mathematics in Miniature and Afternoon Edition (extracts from recent programmes).
- ATV: as London.
- Friday 3rd January 1964
- A-R: Notre Ville, The World Around Us and Discovery.
- ATV: Notre Ville and Movement.
Sources & References
- The Daily Telegraph television listings, 1964
- The Guardian television listings, 1964
- Radio Times television & radio listings, 1964 (London edition on microfilm)
- The Times television listings, 1964, via The Times Digital Archive
- TV Times (London Edition) television listings, 1964, via TV Times Project database
- TV Times (Midland Edition) television listings, 1964
- TV Times (Northern Edition) television listings, 1964
Sources on Radiovision
- Fawdry, Kenneth (1974) Everything But Alf Garnett: A Personal View of BBC School Broadcasting, London: BBC. ISBN 0 563 12763 5 pp.31-38
- Institute of Education Special Collections (1990) Catalogue of the British Broadcasting Corporation Radiovision Archive
- Mee, E.C. 'Fifty years of school broadcasting and the changing curricula of primary schools: 1924-74' in Trends in Education, number 36, December 1974, pp.35-9. London: Department of Education and Science
- Taylor, Duncan 'Radiovision's Third Birthday' in Visual Education, January 1967 pp. 29-31.
- Visual Education (1964) 'An introduction to the experimental series of BBC Radio-vision' in Visual Education, January 1964, pp.12-13.
- Wolff, Al 'The design of radio language broadcasts' in British Journal of Language Teaching, volume 9 number 2-3, autumn 1980, pp.67-72. London: British Association for Language Teaching
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Radiovision script extracts from Maths with a Story: Curved-Line Shapes (15/05/1984) frame 8 and Nature: Where Do Babies Come From? (16/01/1970) frame 5. Looking at Things: Courtship and Marriage in Painting (16/01/1964) is described with script extracts in Fawdry (1974) p.33.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Visual Education (1964) described Courtship and Marriage in Painting and also includes the quote from a girl who thought "it was much better than an ordinary film".
- ↑ Television listings in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Times confirm that schools programmes were taken by Anglia, TWW, Teledu Cymru, Westward, Southern, Tyne Tees and Scottish Television this term, and the times at which they were scheduled - but not which programmes were shown. It is well established that Grampian and Ulster Television took schools programmes from the 1950s, but I am not certain about Channel or Border. If you have any definite information or access to local newspapers for those areas please get in touch by email.
Subjects key
Different colours indicate different school subjects.