41 Fun Facts About BBC

Which kind of firms set up the British Broadcasting Company in 1922?

Wireless manufacturers, and the new company took over Marconi's London station, 2LO, to begin its daily broadcasts.

Who was the BBC's first director general?

John Reith, a 33-year-old Scottish engineer when hired, who went on to champion the BBC's independence from commercial and political influence.

Which motto appears on the BBC's coat of arms?

Nation shall speak peace unto Nation, words most likely inspired by the Bible's promise that 'nation shall not lift up sword against nation'.

What is the name of the BBC's headquarters building in Portland Place?

Broadcasting House, where a German bomb exploded in October 1940 in the middle of the nine o'clock news, and the newsreader carried on.

Which weekly listings magazine did the BBC launch in 1923?

Radio Times: newspapers, afraid radio would eat into their sales, had refused to print the BBC's programme listings.

As of 2025, how is the BBC's work principally funded?

A television licence fee, yet that licence is needed even to watch BBC iPlayer on a laptop or phone.

The BBC's regular television service launched in 1936 from which London venue?

Alexandra Palace, and the rays on Haringey's coat of arms also recall the television broadcasts made from it.

A power cut blacked out BBC2's 1964 launch night, so which children's show became its first programme?

Play School, shown the next morning once power returned after a fire at Battersea Power Station had wrecked the opening night.

Which station's easy-listening half came from the 1967 split of the Light Programme?

Radio 2: in its early years it shared many programmes with Radio 1, so much of the old Light Programme's output carried on as before.

Radio 1 was launched in 1967 to answer demand created by what?

Pirate broadcasters such as Radio Caroline, which Parliament had just outlawed, leaving young listeners hungry for pop.

Who was the first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1?

Tony Blackburn, who launched the station at 7am with the words 'welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1'.

Which band's record was the first played in full on Radio 1?

The Move, whose 'Flowers in the Rain' royalties were ordered to charity after a promotional postcard libelled Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

What was the BBC's teletext service, launched in 1974?

Ceefax, which BBC engineers first designed to carry subtitles for deaf viewers before it grew into news, weather and sport.

Which BBC weatherman told viewers not to worry about a hurricane, hours before the Great Storm of 1987?

Michael Fish: that night, winds gusting up to 100mph blew down about 15 million trees.

On Test Card F, Carole Hersee is playing which game with a clown doll?

Noughts and crosses: the card was developed by her father, BBC engineer George Hersee, who photographed his own daughters for it.

What is the name of the clown doll on Test Card F?

Bubbles: if a set's colour signal lagged behind, his yellow buttons turned white, so the clown doubled as a fault check.

Which company built the BBC Micro for the Computer Literacy Project?

Acorn Computers won the contract with a rapidly prototyped machine called the Proton, which was then renamed the BBC Micro.

Which gentle instrumental plays on BBC Radio 4 just before the late-night Shipping Forecast?

Sailing By, a slow waltz by Ronald Binge whose repetitive tune helps sailors tuning in to find the station.

What was the name of Blue Peter's first pet dog?

Petra, though she was a stand-in: the first puppy died after one appearance, and the team quietly bought a lookalike that viewers named.

What does Blue Peter famously award viewers for an outstanding achievement?

A badge, which gets its holder free entry to many British attractions, particularly museums featured on the show.

The Archers is set in which fictional village?

Ambridge, and the soap began partly to teach farmers good agricultural practice after the Second World War.

Who presented Match of the Day from 1999 to 2025?

Gary Lineker: when the BBC took him off air over a 2023 tweet, fellow pundits and commentators backed him by refusing to work.

Who devised and first presented Desert Island Discs in 1942?

Roy Plomley, who had the idea at home in 1941 and pitched it in a letter to the BBC's Leslie Perowne.

Which bandaged bear is the mascot of BBC Children in Need?

Pudsey, dreamed up in 1985 by a BBC designer who had only been asked to smarten up the appeal's logo.

Who hosted the Children in Need telethon for 35 years?

Terry Wogan, and after his death in 2016 the BBC renamed its Western House building Wogan House in his memory.

MediaCityUK, the BBC's northern base, sits mainly in which town?

Salford: built on the old Manchester docks, it took BBC departments including Sport and children's programmes out of London.

EastEnders is set in which fictional London borough?

Walford, whose made-up E20 postcode became real in 2011, when Royal Mail gave it to London's Olympic Park.

Which 1992 film lends half its name to the BBC's celebrity dance contest?

Strictly Ballroom: the show's format was then sold abroad, and in America it became Dancing with the Stars.

Panorama's 1957 April Fools' hoax showed Swiss farmers harvesting what?

Richard Dimbleby's sober narration helped; viewers rang in asking how to grow their own spaghetti tree.

The BBC Proms are held predominantly in which venue?

Royal Albert Hall: the Proms moved there after their original home, the Queen's Hall, was destroyed in the Blitz in 1941.

Which impresario hired Henry Wood to conduct the first Proms season in 1895?

Robert Newman, manager of the Queen's Hall, wanted cheap concerts where part of the audience could stroll about, hence 'promenade'.

The BBC's 1932 shortwave broadcaster for the colonies was named the what?

Empire Service: it carried King George V's first royal Christmas broadcast in 1932 and grew into today's World Service.

The World Service left which London building in 2012?

Bush House had been the World Service's home for 70 years, ever since wartime bombing drove BBC services out of their old studios.

Eric Gill's Prospero and Ariel statues at BBC HQ come from which play?

The Tempest: Ariel is a spirit of the air, a neat match for a building that sends radio out through the air.

The BBC's Portland Place headquarters is built in which architectural style?

Art Deco: the BBC had outgrown its Savoy Hill studios, so instead of converting an old building it commissioned a purpose-built home.

Doctor Who's 1963 debut started 80 seconds late because of news about what?

The Kennedy assassination: the news so overshadowed the launch that the BBC showed the first episode again a week later.

Who was the first actor to play the Doctor in Doctor Who?

William Hartnell, who left through ill health in 1966; the show survived by having the Doctor regenerate into a new actor.

During which crisis did the BBC first become Britain's main source of news?

The general strike: Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin went on air, but the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald was refused a broadcast.

Whose 30-line system did the BBC use for experimental TV broadcasts in 1929?

John Logie Baird, whose mechanical system was soon beaten by EMI's all-electronic one when the two ran side by side in 1936.

Which writer joined the BBC's Eastern Service in 1941, supervising cultural broadcasts to India?

George Orwell, whose statue outside the BBC's headquarters is inscribed: 'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear'.

Which French general's 18 June 1940 appeal to resist was broadcast by the BBC?

Charles de Gaulle, and the BBC's French-language broadcasts, Radio Londres, went on to become the voice of Free France.