Picture Page

Picture Page was a British television programme, broadcast on the BBC Television Service (now known as 'BBC One') from 1936 to 1939, and again after the service's hiatus during the Second World War from 1946 until 1952. It was the first British television series to become a long-running and regular popular hit.

The programme was a magazine format, with two hour-long editions broadcast each week covering a range of interviews with well-known personalities, features on a range of topics and coverage of public events taking place. The main presenter during the pre-war era as Canadian actress Joan Miller, who played the roll as a 'switchboard operator', similar to that of a telephone exchange, 'connecting' the viewers to the particular guests and items being featured that week. Miller became nicknamed 'The Switchboard Girl' in the popular press, and became one of the first television celebrities. She would be assisted by Leslie Mitchell and Jasmine Bligh, both members of the BBC's team of in-vision continuity announcers. Following the return of the programme in 1946, first Joan Gilbert and then later Mary Malcolm took on presenting duties.

Picture Page was produced by the BBC from their Alexandra Palace television studios for the entirety of its run. The first episode was actually broadcast on October 8 1936, some three and half weeks before the official opening of the service on November 2, as part of the ongoing test transmissions in the run-up to the launch date.

• Evans, Jeff (2001). The Penguin TV Companion (1st ed.). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-140-51467-8.