February 1957 highlights In this age of 24 hour broadcasting, it seems absurd that until February 1957, neither the BBC nor ITV was allowed to broadcast television between 6.00 and 7.00pm. The hours' break was known as 'The Gap', or 'Toddlers' Truce', and was imposed to enable parents to get their children to bed! The rule was finally relaxed in our featured week, and the BBC chose to fill the gap with an extra news bulletin, and Tonight - a new magazine show which promised us "interviews with people in the news; views from people who never get into the news; sporting comment; reviews of the day's papers; musicians and music; something about travel; stories, puzzles, and up-to-the-minute flashes from the newsroom." The programme, introduced by Cliff Michelmore (right), ran until 1965. On Saturdays the gap was filled with a new pop programme, Six Five Special, presented by Jo Douglas and Pete Murray (below) which, aside from music, would also include comedy sketches, something for sports lovers, and items on rock climbing.  There was another magazine show on this day, this time for children, Studio E with Vera McKechnie, and featuring Tony Hart, which came from the Lime Grove studios in Shepherd's Bush which the BBC had bought at the start of the 1950s. At this point BBC television programmes were produced from Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove; Television Centre opened three years later.
Apart from the news, two programmes amazingly survive from this schedule - This is Your Life, and 'television's window on the world', Panorama (which would be shown on Mondays only for another 43 years). Other long-running shows would begin soon - The Sky at Night began in April and has been presented monthly by Patrick Moore almost without fail ever since; October 1958 would see the launch of both Grandstand and Blue Peter. Broadcasting hours were still very restricted; there was nothing before 3.00pm when the BBC's thrilling programming included a guide to vacuum cleaners, while it was bedtime after the news at 10.45.
And in Radio Times 17-23 February 1957 Price 3d  The changes in BBC television coincided with some changes to Radio Times, with the size of the magazine increasing from 52 to 60 pages. The dominance of television was really beginning to take hold - so in Radio Times, the cover emphasis would henceforth be on television rather than radio. And inside, for the first time, television programmes were now presented ahead of radio, as in the present day layout; although radio still had somewhat more space devoted to it.
Radio Times did however manage to find space for a small portrait gallery of that week's television newsreaders: John Snagge, Frank Phillips, Richard Baker and Wallace Greenslade (above). Facing competition from the somewhat brighter and breezier 18 month-old TV Times, the rather more staid RT began to lighten up a bit with some shorter, snappier items at the front of the magazine in 'Round and About'. At the other end was 'A Page for Women', and finally 'Points from the Post', in which one reader advocated renaming the Eleven Plus exam the Ten Plus. Now what has that got to do with broadcasting? 1936 1946 1950 1955 1957 1959 Radio Times Covers | 
