For a while after the grand opening, Associated-Rediffusion had almost no source of programming other than its own. And in its first year, it lost over £3 million. Yet in 1957 it opened the country's first regular Schools Television service.
And while some remember Rediffusion in both its incarnations as the source of some dreadfully memorable - and financially successful - game shows, the company was equally good at culture.
A company, then, of contrasts - ingenuity, pioneering spirit, and down-to-earth business sense. And commercialism. And art. A company… of contradictions?
This section looks at programming on Rediffusion - not so much in terms of specific shows, but more in the way that the company’s programmes represented Rediffusion’s ethos and progress, in the world of British commercial television’s first dozen or so years.
