MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:38 pm Page 2 Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Contacts BBC Information 08700 100 222* Text phone for people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment is: 08700 100 212 Celebrating 50 years of BBC Television in Northern Ireland *Calls charged at national rate and may be recorded BBC NI Accountability Department 028 90 338 210 BBC NI Archive at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum 028 90 428 428 Email: [email protected] For information on how to obtain tickets for BBC recordings, please log on to bbc.co.uk/ni/tickets Credits With thanks to: Mark Adair, Nan Magee, Lisa Kelso, Keith Baker, Grainne Loughran, Lynda Atcheson, Peter Johnston, Margaret McKee,Tracey Leavy, Caroline Cooper, Joanne Wallace, Paul McKevitt,Veronica Hughes,Tony Dobbyn, Robin Reynolds, Rory O’Connell, Stephen Douds, Geraldine McCourt, Rachael Moore, Information and Archives BBC NI, Pacemaker and NewCreation.com MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:38 pm Page 4 The Magic Box – Celebrating 50 years of BBC Television in Northern Ireland Television was one of the most socially important production effort in drama, news, sport, education and innovations of the 20th Century. Its arrival helped shrink entertainment. Today's knowledge economy and the world, and to enlarge our understanding of its information society, and our creative industries, owe much complexity.What began as a tiny and experimental affair to Northern Ireland’s television pioneers. quickly became a dominant means of communication.The The Magic Box is a touring exhibition to celebrate magic box of television was transformed from an 50 years of BBC television in, for and about Northern expensive luxury, with limited programming and even Ireland. It tells the story of our region through sound and smaller audiences, to an everyday item watched by almost pictures and underscores the BBC’s long-established and all of us. Over the last 50 years it has shaped our unique role at the heart of community life and creativity. childhoods, connected us with big events and provided a rich source of information, education and entertainment. Television has brought everywhere to every living room. It has transformed our sense of time and distance, and made the unknown and far-away, familiar. Its pictures have allowed us to glimpse ourselves and to catch proper sight of strangers, whether at home or abroad. Local people have been part of this story of social and technological change. BBCNI made its first television broadcast half a century ago.Those flickering black and white images began a process which would, in time, turn Professor Fabian Monds CBE occasional local programmes into a year-round National Governor BBC Northern Ireland MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:38 pm Page 6 Small Screen – Big Influence BBC Television made its debut was broadcast from Westminster When television came to Northern Ireland in 1953, few turned to it for reliable news of what was happening in in Northern Ireland in 1953, Abbey. It was the first British could have realised how important it would become. Its our streets and countryside. And it also provided an relaying network programmes Coronation ever seen live on role as both “mirror and window”, in Sir Kenneth important source of humour and entertainment that from a temporary transmitter television. It still is. Bloomfield’s phrase, has been massively influential. enabled us to laugh at ourselves and the predicaments of installed in an old Nissen hut on All over the country, people community life in NI. a hillside just outside Belfast. Television has allowed us to watch the events that shaped gathered round the nearest available the second half of the twentieth century: wars, The small screen has exerted a big influence on all our The first viewers were thin on the television set to watch. assassinations, the exploration of space, the fall of lives.This exhibition gives us an opportunity to count the ground.Television sets were It was a turning point.As one viewer Communism and the coming of the new millennium gains of its first half century and to estimate local expensive and the reception – black recalled, ‘the Royal Family were on across the globe. And through its images, the world has television’s promise and future direction. and white, of course - was far from television so therefore it was okay.’ seen our conflict and local efforts to create a more perfect. Television had become acceptable. peaceful future. A typical day that month shows a And it was here to stay. schedule that included cricket, a Television has given us opportunities to see ourselves and western, a variety gala and news. our neighbours in Northern Ireland. Our poets and There were long gaps in writers have made this new medium their own. Children transmission and programmes had from town and country have learned more about each concluded by 10.30pm. 24 hour other through schools’ broadcasts, and all of us have television was still some years away. benefited from a range of programmes documenting our history and celebrating local creativity, sporting But on 2nd June 1953, history was achievements and cultural diversity.Television has created a made and people could watch it powerful, living record of the ordinary and the Anna Carragher happening. Controller extraordinary lives of people here. In the darkest days we BBC Northern Ireland The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:38 pm Page 8 The first programme made by diverse as drama, current affairs, In Northern Ireland, with its long Other news programmes were to And the news that they, and others, BBC Northern Ireland for local education, sport and entertainment. history of division, objective and follow: Six Five, Six Ten,Scene reported was the often difficult story viewers was Ulster Mirror in It also produces popular informed journalism is vital. Around Six, Inside Ulster, BBC of Northern Ireland itself – Bloody 1954. programmes for Network audiences. Newsline. All have made their mark Sunday, Bloody Friday, Enniskillen, News and Current Affairs has been a with the Northern Ireland audience. Omagh, the Good Friday Agreement. Shown every fortnight, it was a core service over the past fifty years. miscellany of items from around the So, too, the presenters. Names from The television images of those events, Television news remains a vital link region. However, no facilities existed the past and present include: captured by camera staff operating in between the BBC and the community in Belfast for either editing, or local often grim and dangerous it serves. Malcolm Kellard, Larry McCoubrey, Barry transmission, so all the material had circumstances, are seared into our Cowan, Sean Rafferty,Wendy Austin, Noel to be flown to London and it was The first bulletin was broadcast in memories.They are milestones in our Thompson, Rose Neill. All became broadcast from there. 1957 and bore very little resemblance troubled journey. familiar teatime guests in our homes. to the kind of coverage viewers expect But even that first tentative step today.There was no film.Video had not BBCNI journalism has always been into local programming even been invented.A newsreader read characterised by authority and demonstrated a commitment by the a script illustrated only by the informed analysis – from BBC to connect with its audience occasional black and white photograph. correspondents such as W.D. Flackes, and to reach into the heart of It was like radio, on television. Eric Waugh and Brian Walker to Stephen communities in towns, cities and Grimason, Maggie Taggart, Brian Rowan The first news magazine came on the villages across Northern Ireland. and Dot Kirby. air in 1959. Studio Eight was the Today, BBCNI broadcasts almost 740 name of the studio and the A host of distinguished broadcasters hours of locally produced programme itself. cut their journalistic teeth with programmes each year in areas as BBC NI – Nicholas Witchell, Jeremy Paxman, Gavin Esler and many more. MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:38 pm Page 10 Since 1973, Spotlight has been Investigating, challenging, and getting And Let’s Talk has made a direct and Throughout its history, BBC NI homes. It was the single biggest BBC NI’s flagship current affairs under the skin of important issues intimate connection with audiences on has shown a commitment to outside broadcast operation ever programme. have been at the core of Spotlight’s a range of topics, providing a valuable the big occasion, and to mounted by the region. purpose. platform for debate. capturing and sharing events The moments leading up to the of significance. And while politics and security issues conclusion of the negotiations on have often dominated the wider Live election coverage has been a Good Friday in 1998 gave us more agenda since 1969, Spotlight has kept major part of that.And BBC NI history in the making. audiences informed about other has been the only local And who can forget pictures of aspects of life in Northern Ireland. broadcaster to provide regular the first visit by President Clinton More recently, Hearts and Minds has coverage of debates from the in November 1995? established itself as a uniquely engaging Assembly Chamber at Stormont. political series. Once again, keeping audiences informed has been, and remains, a priority. Since June 1953, there has been coverage of visits to Northern Ireland by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family. Historic, too, was the Pope’s journey to Ireland in 1979. BBC NI cameras brought his famous speech in Drogheda live into our MAGIC BOX booklet 28/3/03 5:39 pm Page 12 James Young was a huge success in the It was in the famous Billy plays that Group Theatre long before his young Kenneth Branagh’s talents first comedy was transferred to television reached a wider audience.