What’s the first thing you do when you get home from school? Your homework of course, and then at least an hour of studying after that, and absolutely no television… Ever…
Who are we kidding, the first thing we all do when we get home from school is turn the telly on (especially when the Great British Bake Off is on) and before we know it it’s bed time and we’ve not done any of our homework! (But we can always do it during tutor time so there’s no need to worry.) It’s something we take for granted, a big square box – or rather, a rectangular flat screen – with moving pictures and sound coming out of it, but the TV was only invented less than 100 years ago!
Some people thought the television wouldn’t take off because nobody would have time to sit around and look at a box for hours on end, but now we all sit watching “the box” for hours on end and have little time for everything else (but nobody wants to miss the cake catastrophes of GBBO.)
Who do we have to thank for the enticing drama of a baking reality show? John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer. Yes Scottish, the rest of the world can thank us later. 90 years ago today he did the first test of a working TV, and what did he transmit? Stooky Bill, a ventriloquist puppet. Not nearly as exciting as a melted ice cream cake being thrown in the bin by an angry contestant, in my opinion.
So thank you John Logie Baird for giving us the Great British Bake Off (well… kind of.)