ABSTRACT
The BBC Television service which, when it opened in the autumn of 1936, had been the world's first public television service, had been abruptly shut down on the outbreak of the war. It re-opened in June 1946 - on the day when Victory was formally celebrated with eminently telegenic parades. But its coverage was limited to the range of the Alexandra Palace transmitter and even in that area its potential audience was very small. No one knew how many sets there were when the service went off the air in September 1939. It wasn't until after the war, when the viewer was required to take out a 'combined sound and television' licence, that the GPO could issue firm figures. Nine months after the resumption of the service there were still less than 15,000.
