THE 700 audience members, all in evening dress, made their way through the crowded foyer of the Theatre Royal, in Glasgow’s Hope Street, still cameras clicking industriously as newspaper photographers sought out the celebrities.
Such was the birth of commercial television in Scotland, on Saturday, August 31, 1957.
Scottish Television had taken over the venerable theatre earlier in the year, converting the theatre space into three studios. The film and stage star Jack Buchanan, debonair in top hat, white tie and tails, opened the new venture that August. The dignitaries included Sir Kenneth Clark, the retiring chairman of the Independent Television Authority, and Roy Thomson, chairman of Scottish Television.
A live show, ‘This Is Scotland’, was beamed from the station’s new home, part of a schedule that was watched by an estimated one million viewers. Inside the auditorium, however, the heat, aggravated by a battery of arc lamps, quickly became oppressive. Fur wraps were taken off, and copies of the souvenir programme fluttered as they were pressed into service as fans.
The Glasgow Herald’s TV critic spoke of the show’s “strong Scottish flavour and sentimental view of Scotland,” with films about the glories of Scotland, and interviews with Scottish stars: “For what it was, a glorious inevitability, it was well enough done. With the audience it was aimed at, it no doubt went down handsomely.”
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