6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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Rob: Hello, I'm Rob.
Cath: And I'm Cath.
Rob: And this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Today we're talking
about a very popular subject - television. Now Cath, I have to ask you, are you a
big TV addict?
Cath: I don't think I'm a big TV addict but you know if there's a really good series on I
do get a bit addicted to it.
Rob: Well Cath, you're quite unusual actually because watching TV has become one of
our most popular pastimes, and in the UK television has recently been celebrating
a special birthday. More on that in a moment it's now time to find out how much
you really know about television. Let's see if you can answer this question.
According to an official survey how many hours a week on average does someone
in the UK watch television? Is it:
a) 20 hours
b) 30 hours
c) 40 hours
Cath: I can't believe the average would be 40 hours a week. I'm not very good at maths
but that's a lot every day isn't it.
Rob: It's a popular pastime.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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Cath: It is a very popular pastime. OK, I'm going to do what I always do and go for the
middle one – 30 hours a week.
Rob: 30 hours. Well, we'll see if you're right at the end of the programme. We know
that people around the world love to watch TV but did you know it's the UK
where the first regular public broadcast began 75 years ago.
Cath: So that's the special birthday you mentioned. Daily TV broadcasting began back
in 1936 – and who was the broadcaster?
Rob: It was us – the BBC! The British Broadcasting Corporation. But of course it had
taken years of developing and experimenting before people could watch television
at home.
Cath: And the development of this new medium was the result of work by many
inventors, people like John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth. So let's hear from
the BBC's Nick Higham about the early days of television…
Nick Higham, BBC
Ready on vision, and sound. Vision and sound are on. (Whistle) The station goes on the air…
They thought of calling it photo telegraphy, seeing by wireless or the electric telescope. They
settled for television, and the world was never the same again.
Rob: So we just the sound of the first TV programme going on-air and then Nick
Higham explaining other names that were considered for this new invention.
Cath: Such as photo telegraphy – telegraphy is about transmitting messages over a
distance electronically, so in this case transmitting pictures. Another suggested
name was electric telescope – I quite like that.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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Rob: It's a good name isn't it; but inventors decided to settle for – or agree on – the
name television and as Nick Higham said, the world was never the same again.
Now so much of our life and what we talk about is influenced by what we see on
TV.
Cath: But 75 years ago when the regular TV broadcasts started, what was shown on
television was quite limited.
Rob: It was, as we can hear now from Television historian, John Trenouth. Listen out
for the word he uses to describe radio…
Television Historian John Trenouth
Well it was an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening. And it was a whole range of
material. Bearing in mind that nobody really knew what television programmes should be, and so
all sorts of things were tried. And one of the things they were very keen to do was to try things
that could not be done on the radio, or as they called it at that time the wireless. So ballet was one
thing that was tried; and various demonstrations, which included a demonstration of
chrysanthemums, the start of the sort of TV gardener; a gentleman who came in and talked about
the fact that he'd built a model of the Golden Hinde from matchsticks…
Rob: So the BBC broadcast just two hours of television a day but those two hours had a
whole range of material.
Cath: Yes, there was variety including ballet, gardening demonstrations, building
models.
Rob: Interesting stuff! These were visual things that couldn't be done on the radio – or
wireless as it used to be called. But it was all very experimental because nobody
really knew what should be shown in a television programme.
Cath: Of course if you wanted to watch all these lovely new programmes you needed to
have a new piece of furniture in your living room – the TV set.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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Rob: But there were only an estimated 400 TV sets in UK homes which could receive
this first broadcast. They weren't cheap and some people were suspicious of this
mystical new device.
Cath: There were lots of strange ideas about this new piece of equipment and some
people thought it was a two-way medium!
Rob: Yes, people actually thought that people inside the TV set could see them at home
so they put a cloth over the screen!
Cath: Now that would be an incredible invention, wouldn't it! Anyway, manufacturers
– the people who made the sets – did eventually put doors on the front which
could be closed when someone had stopped watching TV.
Rob: I don't think we get TV sets with doors on now but the technology has certainly
developed at an incredible rate. Now in the UK we can get TV sets with huge
screens and with pictures in high definition and 3-D. You can even watch TV on
your mobile phone!
Cath: And the number of channels we can watch has also expanded, particularly with
the development of satellite television. Now we are spoilt for choice, it's no
wonder the British spend much of their time watching TV.
Rob: Ah, but how much Cath?! Earlier I asked you a question. According to an official
survey how many hours a week on average does someone in the UK watch
television?
Cath: And I said 30. So was I right?
Rob: Yes you were, fantastic, well done!
Cath: Oh good!
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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Rob: OK Cath, we've just time for you to remind us of some of the vocabulary that
we've heard in today's programme.
Cath: OK, we had:
addict
medium
telegraphy
to settle for
visual
experimental
mystical
manufacturers
high definition
spoilt for choice
Rob: Thanks Cath and thank you for listening. Please join us again for another
programme soon. Bye.
Cath: Bye!
