Top 25 Things You Didn't Know About the BBC

#25: 1922

Before the British Broadcasting Corporation, there was the British Broadcasting Company, founded as a private venture in 1922, and interestingly, it was controlled by the post office. But what does post have to do with television and radio, modern viewers might wonder? Well, at the time, the General Post Office had government-mandated total control of all mass communication barring print, all because of the invention of the telegraph. All of these technologies were intertwined, so the BBC was the purview of the GPO for four years. In 1926, it was dissolved and the state-owned BBC that we have today was formed, beginning on the 1st of January 1927.

#24: The Shipping Forecast

Did you know that the UK was the home of the first-ever weather forecasts broadcast via radio? They weren’t broadcast by the BBC, but rather by the Met Office itself. But one thing WAS always broadcast by the Beeb: the beloved Shipping Forecast. It began in 1924, a modern take on the existing forecasts that had been designed to give ships up-to-date information to try and reduce the number of shipwrecks. But the Shipping Forecast has become a phenomenon, far beyond the people at sea who’d actually need to listen to it; people just love it and will diligently tune into Radio 4 to hear it every day.

#23: The Pips

Also known by the proper name the “Greenwich Time Signal”, the Pips – which, like the Shipping Forecast, are also still broadcast on BBC radio to this day – are designed so that people listening can set their clocks or chronometers to exactly the correct time. Yes, this is another development that comes from Blighty’s maritime past, because the signal was used by navigators on ships. Originally, the Pips came from Greenwich Observatory, right on the Greenwich Meridian line from 1924 onwards, but today they come from an atomic clock in the cellar of Broadcasting House. Also like the theme to the Shipping Forecast, the Pips were broadcast at the 2012 London Olympics.

#22: The Proms

Though they actually began in 1895, decades before the BBC got involved, the Proms HAVE been under the BBC’s remit since 1927. They were devised by Sir Henry Wood to bring classical music and music hall tunes to the masses, and that’s still the role they play today. Broadcast on television and radio, the Proms are a way to get ordinary people excited for classical music and orchestras, and are an extremely prestigious event in the entertainment calendar. There are even different Proms for certain occasions, including a “Blue Peter” Prom at one point, and a popular “Doctor Who” one.

#21: Empire Service

BBC World Service began its life in 1932 as the Empire Short Wave Service, delivering BBC broadcasts to Britain’s colonies. At the time, the British Empire was still the world’s strongest superpower, and the UK had territories around the world; it was so old that it was the service used by King George V, who died in 1936, to deliver his Christmas message. But, of course, in the aftermath of the war, the British Empire was dissolved, and the service was renamed in 1942 to the “BBC Overseas Service”. In 1965 it became BBC World Service, the name it still has to this day as it broadcasts BBC material to the Commonwealth and Brits abroad.

#20: HD TV

Though the BBC has a reputation for being a dinosaur and a relic of the past, it’s actually often been on the cutting edge of technology. For instance, did you know that the first high-definition television broadcast came from the BBC, and that it happened as long ago as 1936? This isn’t modern HD of about 720p, though, and actually, “HD” is a relative term that just means a higher definition than the technology that came before it. At the time, high-definition meant 240 lines in the image, and the BBC was HD from the very first day it broadcasted on television, the 2nd of November 1936. Hardly anybody watched it, of course, because very few people had TVs, but they did it.

#19: Impartiality

You almost certainly DO know this one, and you probably don’t believe that the BBC is impartial at all, because nobody does. But from the beginning, the BBC has been ordered to be an impartial broadcaster, and it’s part of the BBC’s Charter. Presenters and journalists who break this rule face severe penalties, including its former top-paid star, Gary Lineker, who was suspended. His suspension led to the impartiality mandate reaching into social media, too. In fact, the BBC’s strong stance on impartiality means that people often believe all news outlets should try to be impartial, even though it’s really only the BBC that turns its back on opinion pieces.

#18: John Logie Baird

This Scottish inventor had a lot of his experiments bankrolled by the BBC, again putting it on the cutting edge. We just told you that the BBC began broadcasting in 1936, but that was the beginning of its regular television service; it made a handful of experimental broadcasts before that, many fuelled by Baird’s technology. Baird also helped the Beeb transmit one of the first live outdoor broadcasts, and his systems were the backbone of the broadcasting infrastructure in its first decade on the air. He was also a pioneer of colour TV, and in 2021, had his face put on a commemorative 50p coin.

#17: RP

Just what is “Received Pronunciation”? The UK is dominated by this bizarre accent that hardly anybody actually uses in real life, but which WAS historically used throughout BBC broadcasts and by other newsreaders. It’s so ubiquitous there that some have even suggested calling it “BBC Pronunciation”, and for good reason: Lord Reith, the Beeb’s first director-general, mandated that the BBC should have its own accent as a mark of prestige. In recent years, there’s been a big push for more regional diversity on the BBC even outside of its regional franchises, and it’s a lot rarer to hear an RP accent these days.

#16: The BBC Goes Dark

The BBC stopped broadcasting on television for the duration of the Second World War, out of fear that the transmitter it was using would help German aircraft find London. They didn’t have much aircraft to worry about until the Blitz began the following year, but even when the bombing raids ended, television remained dark until the middle of 1946 – almost a whole year after the war was won. For nearly 7 years, the radio was king, delivering crucial updates – including the announcement that the war had ended and that the following day was going to be VE Day on the 7th of May, 1945.

#15: Front Line Family

The BBC has the longest-running radio soap opera in the world, “The Archers”, but throughout the war, it also broadcast this forgotten soap – but only in North America. Called “Front Line Family”, it was all about life on the homefront, and was designed as propaganda to try and guilt Americans into entering the war. Bear in mind that until Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, America’s intervention was far from a certainty, and with France occupied and Russia still maintaining an uneasy alliance with Germany, Britain was alone. The programme ended up running until 1948 and was broadcast throughout the US.

#14: Code Messages

Still on the War, while the Vichy regime ruled France from 1940 onwards, there were many people in the country who didn’t accept French surrender. These resistance cells were actually aided by the BBC throughout the conflict, with BBC radio announcers broadcasting to France delivering coded messages via “Radio Londres”. Axis powers tried to block the signal, but it didn’t work, and obscure French poems were used to signal to the resistance fighters that the D-Day landings were imminent. This meant that the resistance was called into action to liberate France by the BBC. Miraculously, the Germans never seemed to have got their hands on the codebook that would have helped them decipher the messages.

#13: Celtic Languages

How many indigenous languages does the UK have? A lot more than just English, and the BBC has long been doing its bit to preserve them. Despite many attempts over the last millennium to eradicate languages like Cornish, Gaelic, Welsh, Manx, and Irish, the languages survive, and are now slowly recovering. The BBC runs services in Welsh and Gaelic, and has also produced resources to help people learn, or relearn, those native languages, both on television and through audio on BBC Sounds. S4C and BBC Alba produce television shows entirely in these languages once at risk of extinction.

#12: Desert Island Discs

Remarkably, we were still in the midst of the Second World War when “Desert Island Discs” debuted in 1942. It’s been one of Radio 4’s most popular programmes since it moved over there in the late 60s, and going on it is a rite of passage for British celebrities. And if you’re REALLY famous, you might get stranded on a desert island many times. Some of the most prestigious guests include David Attenborough, Grace Kelly, and in 1981, Princess Margaret. When you think about it, it’s fascinating that a programme like this has survived into the present day and remained so popular with listeners and the many, esteemed guests.

#11: The Spaghetti Tree Hoax

Who says that the BBC doesn’t have a sense of humour? Well, admittedly, very few people, given its habit of producing some of the best comedies of all time. But “Panorama” is hardly meant to be amusing, unless you were watching this notorious edition in 1957 about Swiss spaghetti trees. The segment featured a family picking spaghetti from the local spaghetti trees and was broadcast on April Fool’s Day, but considering it came from “Panorama” – the longest-running current affairs programme in the world – a lot of people believed it. People were phoning up the BBC in droves to ask about how they could grow spaghetti and other varieties of exotic pasta at home.

#10: Nuclear Bunker

Where would you go if there was a nuclear war? For a select number of BBC journalists, the answer to that question is Gloucestershire. With the county also home to GCHQ, there’s no better place to hide in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. This bunker was built near Cheltenham during the Cold War to enable the BBC, in some form, to continue if the worst happened, so that people could keep getting radio updates if that was possible. Bizarrely, though, the bunker isn’t even underground, and hardly looks like the most secure place in the world. Today, it still exists, but is privately owned.

#9: The Coronation

Queen Elizabeth II made broadcasting history many times during her life. Her wedding to Prince Philip was broadcast worldwide by BBC Radio, but in 1953, her coronation was broadcast on live television. This was the BBC’s second attempt at broadcasting a coronation, but King George VI didn’t let the cameras into the Abbey. The coronation drew people to buy TV sets more than any other event, with everybody wanting to share this historic moment. It was also broadcast live across Europe, another pioneering technological feat. It was also, of course, broadcast on the radio, but paved the way for royal events on television. Royal weddings, funerals, and the King’s coronation were also all broadcast on TV.

#8: Doctor Who

You probably already know that “Doctor Who” is the longest-running science-fiction programme in the world, but did you know that it was very nearly dead on arrival thanks to President Kennedy being assassinated the day before its first episode? Yes, November 23rd, 1963 was when the first part of “An Unearthly Child” aired, and that alone was remarkable since there was so much coverage of JFK’s death, followed with the coverage of Lee Harvey Oswald’s death the day after. Thankfully, the BBC rebroadcast the episode a week later, and thank god they did, because “Doctor Who” remains one of our most popular home-grown works of fiction ever.

#7: Test Card F

You’ve seen this girl before, but do you know who she is? She’s actually called Carole Hersee, and is the daughter of George Hersee, the BBC engineer who made the test card and used her image. From 1967 up until 1983, Test Card F was the card regularly shown on TV, and it reappeared sporadically until 2013. The BBC has plenty of other test cards, but none as memorable as this one, which has itself become part of pop culture. The Test Card Girl even turns up to taunt DI Tyler in “Life on Mars”. It’s estimated that Carole has appeared on television for a whopping 70,000 hours in total.

#6: Radio 1 vs Pirates

The BBC’s biggest radio station today is Radio 1, which broadcasts everything that’s big in the charts and has done so since 1967. But the Beeb didn’t always embrace pop music, and it was only after the outrageous popularity of pirate radio stations – specifically, Radio London and Radio Caroline – that they decided they had to do something. With rival broadcasters operating illegally in international waters, Radio 1 properly licensed the music it was playing and became popular enough that it killed the pirates. But interestingly, many of those pirate radio DJs eventually went legit and came to work at Radio 1. It’s still the BBC’s flagship radio station, even though it doesn’t play the Shipping Forecast.

#5: Pudsey Bear

Just where did this loveable bear mascot come from? Though it’s hard today to remember a time when Children in Need, which began in 1980, wasn’t a British institution, somebody DID come up with it and subsequently came up with Pudsey Bear. Pudsey’s designer was Joanna Lane, who named him after her hometown in Yorkshire. Pudsey actually didn’t debut until 1985, with no clear mascot before that. But then, he burst onto the scene with his yellow fur and trademark bandana, and has remained a pop culture icon in Britain. In 2022, the BBC dropped Pudsey from the official logo, but he still appears as the telethon’s mascot.

#4: BBC Archives

The BBC has one of the largest collections of archived media in the world, with over 15 million items. Interestingly, the oldest items date back to years before the Corporation began, in the late 19th century. It’s been trying to digitise the entire archives for years, but suffice it to say, that hasn’t exactly gone to plan. But it HAS now got a YouTube channel where the Beeb uploads choice artefacts from the history books, including old episodes of “Tomorrow’s World” and archaic news reports. Despite all this, many things from the early days of TV and radio remain lost, including old recordings of “Blue Peter”, “Doctor Who”, and “Top of the Pops”.

#3: The New Weather

In 2005, the BBC caused outrage by redesigning its weather maps. Twenty years earlier, the BBC had switched from its analogue, paper weather maps to digital ones presented with animations against a green screen – the same way weather forecasts are still presented. But they were redesigned again in the noughties, with the map placed on an angle so that terrain was better visible. This had the effect of making Scotland look smaller, outraging the entire country. Northerners were also outraged, accusing the BBC of having a “southern bias” by foregrounding the south coast and London. The tilt was ever-so-slightly changed in response, but today, it’s flat once again. Finally, victory for everybody further north than Birmingham.

#2: Black & White TV Licences

In 2025, it was reported that there were still over 3000 active black & white TV licences. For a while, the only TV licence was the black & white one, because the BBC didn’t broadcast anything in colour until 1967. From the following year, a colour licence, costing an additional £5, was introduced. Today, you’ll pay about £120 less a year on your TV licence if you have a black and white one. We have no way to know whether all 3000 of those households really are watching TV in black & white, but it’s believed that most of the licences belong to enthusiasts who DO have black & white sets. Or, of course, they’re just trying to fleece the TV Licence Company.

#1: BBC iPlayer

Is the BBC getting left behind by American streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+? Perhaps not, because BBC iPlayer is actually older than them. iPlayer was conceived as early as 2003, it just took a lot of development to get it off the ground. On Christmas Day 2007, it officially launched, letting people watch the previous week’s television on demand. Its first trials were in 2004, but a lot of people at the time thought it was doomed – a boondoggle that was wasting licence payers’ cash. Netflix had only begun streaming in January 2007, AFTER iPlayer’s various betas, and didn’t gain success until 2012. Yes, the BBC really was, once again, at the bleeding edge of technology, pioneering internet streaming.

Let us know in the comments which of these tidbits and anecdotes you weren’t aware of.