The year British television came of age, as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II transformed the medium from a niche hobby into a national institution.
At the dawn of 1953, television was still the junior partner to radio. Fewer than two million homes owned a set, and programming was a minor feature in the listings. That all changed on 2 June. The broadcast of the Queen’s Coronation was the single most important event in British television history; a catalyst that turned the flickering box in the corner into the nation’s hearth. In the build-up, 526,000 new sets were sold as coronation fever swept the country. On the day itself, an estimated 20 million people, 56% of the population, watched the service, dwarfing radio’s audience of 12 million. Television had arrived.
The coverage was a technical and political triumph for the BBC. After initial resistance from the establishment, including Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Queen herself gave permission for the cameras to be allowed inside Westminster Abbey. The broadcast was a marathon, running from the morning procession to a final goodnight from the empty Abbey late in the evening. Its undisputed star was Richard Dimbleby. His measured, authoritative commentary, delivered over many hours, established him as the voice of the nation for all great state occasions and cemented the outside broadcast as a cornerstone of television. The event’s global reach, with recordings flown across the world, announced the medium’s international power.
While the Coronation defined the year, 1953 was also a period when foundational genres were being established. Personality-driven entertainment found its champion in the panel game What’s My Line?. Already a huge success, the programme was a national obsession, thanks in large part to its resident intellectual curmudgeon, Gilbert Harding. Dubbed “the rudest man in Britain,” his on-screen grumpiness and habit of bullying contestants made him one of television’s first and most unlikely stars. His abrasive persona was the perfect foil for the show’s smooth chairman, Eamonn Andrews, and fellow panellists like Barbara Kelly.
The schedules were also being populated with characters that would define a generation’s childhood. The established puppet star Muffin the Mule was facing competition from a new arrival: a glove puppet bear bought for seven shillings and sixpence in a Blackpool shop by engineer Harry Corbett. Sooty made his debut in 1952 and by 1953 was a growing phenomenon. The BBC’s afternoon strand for young children, Watch with Mother, introduced Rag, Tag and Bobtail to its existing line-up of Andy Pandy and The Flowerpot Men, whose peculiar “Flobbadob” language had already caused mild controversy among parents.
Beyond light entertainment, 1953 saw the broadcast of a landmark of television science fiction. Nigel Kneale’s six-part serial, The Quatermass Experiment, was a disturbing and prophetic thriller about a returning astronaut infected by an alien organism. Its unsettling atmosphere and adult tone gripped the nation on Saturday nights. In a different vein, July saw the debut of The Good Old Days. Broadcast from the City Varieties Theatre in Leeds, this Edwardian music hall revival, with its celebrated chairman Leonard Sachs and an audience in full period costume, would become an institution, remaining on air for thirty years. From solemn ceremony to knockabout comedy, the programming of 1953 laid the groundwork for television’s coming cultural dominance.
Key Programmes: The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, What’s My Line?, Panorama, The Quatermass Experiment, The Good Old Days, Sooty, Watch with Mother
Key Personalities: Richard Dimbleby, Gilbert Harding, Eamonn Andrews, Barbara Kelly, Leonard Sachs, Harry Corbett, Nigel Kneale
