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100 Years of TV · Mark and Pete

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  100 years of TV. Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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  We were talking about television, which was introduced
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  as a marvel, as a novelty. A novelty is a clever trick.
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  And then it went on to change everything.
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  Yes, this is Mark and Pete 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Here's our first thought. Armchair controversy were the
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  very first. Televisions were often rented
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  where the picture experienced wobbles, but programme viewing
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  was mainly invented to create family squabbles.
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  Yes, I think it's fair to say that we've all argued with
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  somebody in our family about which television programme to
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  watch. Which is your favorite news
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  programme, documentary or drama? Well, it is incredible.
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  And who do we blame? Well, let's turn to history.
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  In 1926, at the end of January, yes, January the 26th, John
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  Logie Baird first demonstrated his televisor to the public.
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  It was a prototype for television.
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  It went on to literally change the world.
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  Mr. Pete, you may not have a television today, but let's be
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  honest, if it hadn't been for television, the world would be a
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  different place. What say you about this
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  incredible and marvelous invention?
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  Yes, it really has changed things.
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  It's changed almost everything. I mean, for a start, it changed
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  how you interact with your family because and how how you
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  designed your own lounge or sitting room because the
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  television almost replace I think replace the fire as the
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  sort of centre point for. The piano.
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  All the piano. Yeah.
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  Were you and and so there were lots of people decrying how
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  terrible it it was for, I think, justifiable reasons.
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  You this could be used because everyone's watching this and
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  fascinating by it could be used for propaganda purposes.
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  True. But also because everyone was
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  watching the same thing. It was, in a sense, a unifier.
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  Well, the family together, yeah, they could argue about what to
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  watch, but then they had to watch the same thing.
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  This is in in the early days of television before they got
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  smaller and everyone had one in the home room.
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  But yeah, there, there's that. And then there weren't that many
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  channels around in the early days.
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  So you'd end up you could talk about what everyone had watched.
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  And, you know, a large proportion of the population
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  will be watching 1 show altogether.
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  These things have changed with Internet streaming of shows such
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  as the excellent Mark and Pete, which I can recommend.
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  But you know, there are there are many other such shows
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  available, although they're not as good that you can, you can
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  watch now. And the television has lost its
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  thrall, at least to a, to a lot of people.
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  I mean, some people are still sitting around the TV flicking
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  the remote and just watching whatever comes up.
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  But yes, it, it changed the way that it changed things in, in
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  that it was unifying, Therefore gave an opportunity for
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  propaganda, true, gave an opportunity for advertising,
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  true. But it, the one thing we can say
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  about about it is it changed society and culture in
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  remarkable ways, especially, I would say in the way it changed
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  the way that we communicate. And just finally, just my little
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  preparation here. I just want to say as a church
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  leader, change things. So to the extent that I found
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  that people listened to me more when I was speaking if it was a
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  recording of me on a screen than it was in person.
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  Yes, well, there's there's some thought.
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  Behind. That yes, yes now interestingly,
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  the the word television first appeared in 19 O 7 in the
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  discussion of a theoretical device that transported images
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  across Telegraph or telephone wires.
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  Now of course this prediction was behind the time.
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  Some of the first experiments into television used radio waves
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  from the beginning. And of course Logie Bed went on
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  to develop more. What's interesting is so too did
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  many other companies from cable and wireless who'd really
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  developed the the capability. And it's interesting that Logie
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  Bed what he did, he couldn't possibly have ever imagined that
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  the world will be watching programmes such as the first
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  ever moon landing. That was.
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  Televised with literally the world was glued to a box in the
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  corner right way through to one of the most broadcast television
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  programmes, which is completely fictional, which was called
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  MASH. And this was, as you know, the
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  the TV drama based around Korean War, which ironically went
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  longer than the actual Korean War.
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  But it's interesting, isn't it, how television has influenced
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  people, both in terms of the news that it reflects, but the
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  creativity from pop music to drama and many other things.
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  You know, we've seen David Attenborough bring the world to
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  life in his, you know, planet Earth programmes.
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  I mean, if you were to, if you were to look at it, would you
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  sort of err on the side of positive rather than negative in
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  terms of what it's brought together?
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  Or would you think it's just disruptive that family values?
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  It's it's interesting because just as a personal note here
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  before I answer that I don't have a television as as you
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  alluded to, I stopped watching television.
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  I haven't had one for 20 years or so.
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  I do watch video, watch action excellent podcasts, as I've
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  said, but I I will watch them maybe on a computer.
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  I don't watch don't usually watch streaming so services
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  either. So it it's it's I have to choose
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  to watch it. I have to get the computer out
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  or if I'm going to watch it on my phone, get the phone in my
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  pocket. I make a decision rather than it
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  just being on in the room. And that's, but the reason I
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  stopped was just the quality wasn't good enough.
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  That was the way that but so that's just as a just as an
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  aside. Yeah, I think television has
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  overall been a force for good. I think of so many people who
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  have been converted to Christianity from watching
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  television shows and the televising of big evangelistic
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  events. It's enables people to be in
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  church even when they're not saying that you know, it it, it
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  has that it has the effect of democratising things.
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  Yeah, like church, but to Parliament.
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  We can see into parliament because it's televised.
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  It's brought things to light that you would never know about.
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  Now, you alluded to to MASH, the TV show, but of course, the
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  Vietnam War was famously the first televised war.
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  And, you know, people would could actually see what was
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  going on in war. The horrors of war came to,
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  which is a good thing. It's good to know what happens
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  in war. If you can't keep it quiet, then
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  you you can't gloss it over. And you can't go to war without
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  people knowing what they're getting themselves into, at
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  least to a certain extent. So I think overall, by opening
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  up the world to people, television has been a good
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  thing. That's my view.
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  Well, yes. Now interestingly, by the late
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  1990s, nearly a billion units were actually manufactured
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  across the world. I think most of those were in
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  all of my different rooms sort of glued to the to the TV from
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  growing up watching children's programmes rightly through to
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  documentaries. But interestingly, I do think
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  that as an invention, if you were to pick technology as some
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  of those things that have changed the world or change
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  human behaviour and culture, television has to be one of
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  those things we can cite obviously subsequently, you
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  know, things like laptops and mobile phones and of course they
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  have changed the world. But I think you have to put the
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  television as being something that is a is a true milestone.
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  Now there is the the future of television as well, because
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  you've already alluded to the fact that you don't have one.
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  And it's interesting that we have to certainly in the United
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  Kingdom have to pay a licence fee.
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  Many of those people who are wedded to terrestrial
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  television, that's where it's really run by state broadcasters
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  and one or two others, they're diminishing.
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  So just as as we close out here, if you could just go back in
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  time and say, Mr. Logie Bear, I love your invention, but what
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  would you say is the future of television?
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  Well, I would. Yeah.
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  Well, not Mr. Ball. What I think is that the future
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  of television, say, Mr. Logie Bird, look what's happened now.
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  The future of television is looking like it's going to be
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  in, in, in your glasses as you're walking around, in on
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  every phone, everywhere. It's and it's being so
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  ubiquitous. It's being it.
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  It's always removed boredom. You can watch video anywhere and
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  remove your boredom. Now that's a bad thing.
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  Boredom is a good thing. We need to be able to recover
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  like people who used to leave their television on the room
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  didn't no longer appreciated silence, which is you need
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  silence to be able to your brains to recoup.
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  You will also need, I think to be have the opportunity to be
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  bored and your mind to, to run free and to work and to think
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  And paradoxically, being provided with interesting and
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  entertaining things non-stop in the video in your phone and on
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  your computer and in your techie glasses, as I think is coming
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  soon. Is it is actually to your
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  detriment because you're never bored.
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  So you're it could be that you're our brains get
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  permanently rewired by this and we can't even think anymore
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  because all the thinking's done for us.
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  Well, there you go. And maybe that is a lesson
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  because quite simply, when you look at this sort of thing,
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  maybe it's time to just simply switch off.