When a fire broke out at Battersea Power Station on 20th April 1964, West London was plunged into darkness. And the opening night of new channel BBC2 descended into chaos, just minutes before its first transmission.
Newsreader Gerald Priestland battled on, transmitting from Alexandra Palace. Instead of the expected programmes, there came repeated apologies for the loss of normal service and news captions.
The first programme, broadcast the next morning, was a brand-new concept devised by Joy Whitby, who championed the idea ‘play is
