What was the first history documentary broadcast on British TV?
It depends on what you mean by ‘history documentary’. In the early years after its launch in 1936, the BBC Television Service broadcast a number of history-based programmes. These included Rough Island Story, a six-part series looking at the history of Britain and its empire, transmitted between May and July 1939. However, this was a studio-based series and probably would not fit our modern understanding of a history documentary.
In the postwar period, the BBC's public service framework – newly applied to television as well as radio – provided, written and produced by the BBC's former war correspondent, Robert Barr, aired in September, followed in November by .
