From the 1950s onwards, television began to unite global populations. For the first time, there was simultaneous proof of landmark events: wars, crises, assassinations, triumphs and tragedies, with the same images shared around the world.
Television also enabled global participation and celebration in world festivals and sporting events. By the end of the 20th century, we felt as if we really were living in a Global Village.
On June 2, 1953, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey ushered in the television age. Until then television had not been taken seriously by the establishment, but the Coronation overcame traditional prejudice, and appealed to millions of people from all social groups both in the UK and overseas.
Cameras had never been allowed inside the Abbey before and the government, led by Winston Churchill, decided the event shouldn't be televised. The decision was overruled by the Queen herself, remarking it was she who would be crowned and not the cabinet.
People ordered televisions in advance as never before. Others went to their neighbours to watch the event. Suddenly viewers who couldn't really afford a 'telly' could buy one through a hire purchase contract, and now they'd seen one they wanted it. Within a year the number of television licences had risen by 50 per cent.
The launch of ITV was a huge challenge for several reasons, but the biggest one was adapting the GPO network to handle the extra demands placed on the system to show the new channel.
ITV was based regionally, with a mixture of locally produced and networked programmes, unlike the BBC, which normally broadcast from a central location showing the same programme to a single national audience.
The Post Office had to make significant changes to allow both of these broadcasting requirements to be met. It wasn't interested in what was being shown on the brand new TV channel, just concerned that whatever it was arrived at the right time and in the right place.
ITV was launched in 1955 to bring choice to television viewing. Unlike the BBC, ITV was funded entirely from revenue earned from advertisement commercials between programmes, meaning the latter had to appeal to as many as people as possible to generate sufficient income.
In fact ITV was set up specifically with this in mind. Many people thought that the BBC was too elitist, so ITV deliberately made its programmes simpler; less concerned over educating people but more interested in entertaining them.
ITV was also unique because it wasn't a single company but relied on a number of regional programme contractors serving specific parts of Britain. Viewers saw a mixture of locally produced and nationally networked programmes, such as Independent Television News (ITN) and Coronation Street.
John Graham, born in 1932 was introduced to the phone from an early age. His family had a candlestick phone on a hall table at home, for his father's job as a Fleet Street journalist, but he was forbidden to touch it at first.
Following a schoolboy fascination with electronics, he became a TV and radio engineer.
While working for Decca he remembers installing the first TV set at Buckingham Palace just in time for the Queen's Coronation so that the young Prince Charles could see most of the ceremony from home. He was, of course, brought to Westminster Abbey for the actual Coronation part of the service.
Play the audio clip and view the transcript to learn more. A new window will open.Neil White, born in March 1939, grew up in Cornwall and came to London University to study electrical engineering. However, city life didn't suit him and he returned to take up a post working for Post Office Telephones at the brand new satellite station at Goonhilly in 1961.
It was first used to communicate with the USA via the Telstar satellite and Neil remembers the difficulty they had in beaming the pictures using the ground-breaking technology.
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