World TV Day 2024: how archive TV provides a portal to the past

In 1996 the United Nations declared 21 November as World TV Day in recognition of the influence of the medium and the power it had in global communications. Today, television is no longer confined to a large screen you have in your home; it can be live broadcasting or a programme you watch on different screens at any time. But although the way we consume television has changed, it still resides at the heart of British culture. 

It was only in January this year that the success of a TV drama – ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office – finally forced the government to act on a miscarriage of justice that had continued for years. Such is the power of broadcast. Meanwhile, millions of people regularly tune in to watch the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… every week. At its best, television, like cinema, can be a joyous communal experience.

The BFI National Archive is the home of the national television archive. We care for a collection that brings together recordings from all the British public service broadcasters – that’s thousands of joyous communal experiences in one place. Together these recordings are a unique record of British life across the decades, and we continue to record these channels today to preserve contemporary television for the future. While the programmes have long been available for non-commercial research access through our Research Viewing Service, over 150,000 of these programmes from ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are now available to access for free in the BFI Southbank Mediatheque.

These historical recordings have been digitised across a decade of work at the archive, and you can read about the expert skills that make this possible over on the archive blog.

But what was television like in 1996? What were we recording on the first World TV Day?

At that time most TV viewing was confined to four channels. Channel 5 would launch the following year, and cable and satellite programming was limited in its reach. In November 1996 our partnerships with ITV and Channel 4 saw the archive capture the following programmes as they were broadcast: the very first MOBO Awards; Hollyoaks; a sitcom set in a firm of solicitors starring Imelda Staunton; Channel 4 News; a documentary about women playing rugby; and an episode of Dispatches about chemical leaks near newly built homes. Maybe things haven’t changed that much after all.

What’s striking when comparing the schedules of 21 November 1996 and 21 November 2024 is how many of the genres we love continue to dominate our viewing. Soaps, cookery programmes and quiz shows continue to be stalwarts of the schedule, even if they now have their own dedicated channels as well.

Our Southbank Mediatheque acts as a portal to the digital collections of the archive, and within this portal you can travel to many World TV Days across years and even decades. 1982 will take you to a time when University Challenge was still on ITV, 2004 will take you to the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party to see McFly, Girls Aloud and Busted. Or stay in the original World TV Day in 1996 and enjoy performances from Lionel Richie and Courtney Pine.

To celebrate the significance of the national television archive on this day, we have curated three new collections for the Mediatheque that showcase highlights from the histories of the independent public service broadcasters – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The channels have made countless iconic series over the decades, and though many are available to stream on the broadcasters’ own platforms, there are thousands of programmes in the archive which are not currently available elsewhere. 

You will find decades of award-winning dramas like Brideshead Revisited and Queer as Folk, landmark children’s animation like Peppa Pig and Danger Mouse and, of course, soaps alongside scores of magazine series and current affairs programmes such as Bandung File, Good Afternoon, World in Action and Mavis on 4.

These televisual riches will be available all year round in the Mediatheque, but however you choose to celebrate World TV Day, happy viewing!