ABSTRACT
The flow of sound holds television together, yet sound, the creation of an ‘audio space’, is often neglected in studies of this intensely visual medium. But television is heir to radio, as well as to cinema, theatre and the music hall, and, unlike cinema, television began life with the expectation that its pictures would be accompanied by natural sound. Indeed, when BBC television first set up its headquarters in the majestic Alexandra Palace in North London, the radio grandees at Broadcasting House saw it as an inferior medium. They thought its pictures would simply illustrate their radio programmes. The earliest news bulletins consisted of an anonymous voice accompanied by some rather uninspiring still images. Newsreaders were not permitted to be seen speaking to the cameras as it was thought that their facial expression might add a biased interpretation to the neutrality of the news.
