On Monday morning 30th September 1929, John Logie Baird stood in a corner of the studio in Long Acre and witnessed the inaugural broadcast of television carried through the BBC transmitter 2LO for half an hour. The Right Honourable William Graham, President of the Board of Trade and member of the British Cabinet read a message stating how he looked forward to ‘this new applied science’ to encourage and provide a new industry, not only for Britain but the rest of the world. Summing up, Mr Graham said that television would; “encourage closer relations between communities at home and abroad and provide a new avenue for educational development.”

This and subsequent broadcasts on this day were sent from one transmitter only and sound and vision had to be sent alternatively. From 31st March 1930, however, two wavelengths were allotted, the sound being transmitted from one, and the vision from the other simultaneously. For this inaugural transmission of sight and sound a ‘Televisor’ was installed at 10 Downing Street to allow the Prime Minister, J. Ramsay MacDonald, to enjoy the programme. In a personal letter to Baird, dated 5th April 1930, MacDonald wrote; ‘What a marvellous discovery you have made!’

On the 8th May 1931 Baird gave a demonstration of the televising of street scenes in normal daylight. A van was drawn up in Long Acre and a revolving mirror drum picked up the scene, which was transmitted by landline to watching press representatives. 5 days later, on 13th May, Baird’s apparatus was installed in No 11 Downing Street for an interview by the newspaper the Daily Herald. In it’s editorial comment the following day the newspaper reported: ‘When the Daily Herald interviewed Mrs. Snowden yesterday by television, and watched her image on the screen throughout the conversation, yet another of the dreams of science passed into the realms of fact…It is proof positive to the most hard-bitten sceptic that television is rapidly passing from the experimental to the commercial stage – quicker, in fact, than the bulk of people imagine…It was a British triumph.’

During the summer of 1930 Baird had stated in public that, given the facilities, he could transmit the Derby by television. Once again his critics raised doubts, some ridiculed him and some insulted him. Even many of his friends were doubtful of the wisdom of publicly announcing this ambitious experiment. But undeterred, Baird set about making arrangements to televise the horse race on 3rd June 1931. On the day, the Baird caravan took up a position against the rails almost opposite the winning post, and after supervising the installation, Baird returned to his Long Acre studio to take charge of a long row of receivers. The scenes were sent by landline to Long Acre and also broadcast by the BBC, which had only allowed Baird a minute voltage for the broadcast causing the picture to flicker with interference. However, despite the BBC the Derby day transmission was yet another triumph for Baird. J. Earnest Jay, special correspondent of the Daily Herald, wrote: “The result astonished us all. We had found the stepping-stone to a new era in which mechanical eyes will see for us great events as they happen and convey them to us at our homes…’

From 15th October 1931 Baird’s television was introduced into BBC broadcast hours as a weekly feature, previous transmissions being in the morning or after midnight. Many different forms of ‘entertainment’ were experimented on in the course of refining the quality of the transmitted picture including music and dance with the first ballet performance going before the experimental cameras. Unfortunately there are no records to substantiate the exact date although the ballerina Ailsa Bridgewater wrote to Television magazine in 1935 that the transmission started at midnight. This would place the date prior to October 1931 but after March 1929. Ms Bridgewater went on to write that; "Owing to the fact that a full-length picture was then impossible, after a short introductory speech I mounted the stage which was more in the form of a table than anything else, and commenced to show the rudiments of ballet technique within the carefully marked out space."

It is obvious from the rest of her letter that Ms Bridgewater was perfectly aware of the historical significance of her performance as she goes on to state that; "From the moment when the red light showed suddenly and brightly, and the immediate "all quiet please" came from the announcer, an indescribable feeling of romance inevitably pervaded the next half hour. Despite a certain amount of natural nervousness at facing both the microphone and the televisor, to a far greater extent was the thrill and realisation that this was the foundation of a new means of presenting the art of dancing to the public."

In 1932 Baird built on his triumph of the previous year by transmitting the Derby to an expectant audience at the Metropole Theatre, Victoria. He used three telephone lines from Epsom and sent three pictures, which were transmitted side by side into one large picture 7 feet high by 9 feet wide. Again the BBC only allocated Baird and his technicians a limited amount of power. However, unbeknown to them Baird’s men increased the voltage ten-fold and no one at the BBC was any the wiser. As April the Fifth passed the winning post first the audience at the Metropole stood and cheered. It was another public success for John Logie Baird.