BBC Two
BBC Two logo
Launched	20 April 1964 based in London
Owned by	BBC
Picture format	576i (PAL) 16:9 SDTV
Audience share	6.1% (August 2011, BARB)
Country	United Kingdom
Broadcast area	Nationwide based in London
Headquarters	BBC Television Centre, London
Formerly called	BBC2 (20 April 1964–3 October 1997)
Sister channel(s)	BBC One BBC Three BBC Four BBC News BBC Parliament BBC HD CBBC CBeebies
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo
Availability
Terrestrial
Analogue	Normally tuned to 2 (To be phased out nationwide by 2012)
Freeview	Channel 2
Digitenne (Netherlands)
Satellite
Freesat	Channel 102 Channels 968–971 (regional variations)
Sky (UK)	Channel 102 Channels 989–992 (regional variations)
Sky (Ireland)	Channel 142
Astra 1N	10773H 22000 5/6
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 102
Smallworld Cable	Channel 102
UPC Ireland	Channel 109
Ziggo (Netherlands)	Channel 602
UPC (Netherlands)	Channel 51
Numericable (Belgium)
Naxoo (Switzerland)	Channel 214
Cablecom (Switzerland)	Channel 156
IPTV
TalkTalk TV	Channel 2
Belgacom TV(Brussels)	Channel 68
Belgacom TV(Flanders)	Channel 24
Belgacom TV(Wallonia)	Channel 214
Bluewin TV(Switzerland)
Internet television
BBC iPlayer	Watch live (UK only)
TVCatchup	Watch live(UK only)

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore commercial-free. It is a comparatively well funded public service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most current public service networks worldwide.

Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 20 April 1964 based in London), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour. It was envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming, and while this tendency has continued to date, most special-interest programmes of a kind previously broadcast on BBC Two, for example the BBC Proms, now tend to appear on BBC Four instead.

History[link]

Launch[link]

British television at the time of BBC2's launch consisted of two channels: the BBC Television Service and the ITV network made up of smaller regional companies. Both channels had existed in a state of competition since ITV's launch in 1955, and both had aimed for a populist approach in response. The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britain's third television station should be awarded to the BBC.^[1]

Prior to its launch, the new BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service: the soon to be renamed BBC1. The animated adverts featured the campaign mascots "Hullabaloo", a mother kangaroo, and "Custard", her joey. Prior to, and several years after, the channel's formal launch, the channel broadcast 'Trade Test Transmissions', short films made externally by companies such as Shell and BP, which served to enable engineers to test reception, but became cult viewing.

The channel was scheduled to begin at 19:20 on 20 April 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show The Alberts, a performance from Soviet comedian Arkady Raikin, and a production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, culminating with a fireworks display. However, at around 18:45 a huge power failure, originating from a fire at Battersea Power Station, caused Television Centre, and indeed much of west London, to lose all power. BBC1 was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at Alexandra Palace, but all attempts to show the scheduled programmes on the new channel failed. Associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBC's behalf, but their gesture was rejected. At 22:00 BBC2 had no choice but to concede defeat and postpone programming until the following morning. As the BBC's news centre at Alexandra Palace was unaffected, they did in fact broadcast brief bulletins on BBC2 that evening, beginning with an announcement by the newsreader Gerald Priestland at around 19:25.^[2] There was believed to be no recording made of this bulletin, but a videotape was discovered in early 2003.^[3]

By 11:00 on 21 April, power had been restored to the studios and programming began, thus making Play School the first programme to be shown officially on the channel. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was then successfully shown that evening, albeit with minor changes. In reference to the power cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter Denis Tuohy.^[3]

To establish the new channel's identity and draw viewers to it, the BBC decided that a widely promoted, lavish series would be essential in its earliest days. The production chosen was The Forsyte Saga (1967), a no-expense-spared adaptation of the novels by John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors Kenneth More and Eric Porter. Critically for the future of the fledgling channel, the BBC's gamble was hugely successful, with an average of six million viewers tuning in per episode: a feat made more prominent by the fact that only 9 million were able to receive the channel at the time.

Unlike BBC1 and ITV, BBC2 was broadcast only on the 625 line UHF system, so was not available to viewers still using sets on the 405-line VHF system. This created a market for dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. The early technical problems, which included being unable to transmit US-recorded videotapes due to a lack of system conversion from the US NTSC system, were resolved by a committee headed by James Redmond.

Technological advancements[link]

The new 625 line system had one noticeable advantage: the bandwidth was sufficient for colour broadcasts and indeed on 1 July 1967, BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin regular broadcasts in colour, using the PAL system.^[4] The thirteen part series Civilisation (1969) was created as a celebration of two millennia of western art and culture to showpiece the new colour technology.^[5] BBC1 and ITV later joined BBC2 on 625-line UHF band, but continued to simulcast on 405-line VHF until 1985. BBC1 and ITV simultaneously introduced PAL colour on UHF on 15 November 1969, although they both had broadcast some programmes in colour "unofficially" since at least late 1968.

In 1979, the station adopted the first computer generated channel identification (ident) in Britain, with its use of the double striped, orange '2' logo. The ident, created in house by BBC engineers, lasted a number of years and heralded the start of computer generated logos.

As the switch to digital-only terrestrial transmission progresses, BBC Two is (in each region in turn) the first analogue TV channel to be replaced with the BBC multiplex, at first, four then two weeks ahead of the other four channels. This is required for those relay transmitters that have no current Freeview giving viewers time to purchase the equipment, unless they have already selected a satellite or cable service.

BBC Two was channel of the year in 2007.

Operation[link]

The channel controllers have been:

• 1964–1965: Michael Peacock
• 1965–1969: David Attenborough
• 1969–1974: Robin Scott
• 1974–1978: Aubrey Singer
• 1978–1982: Brian Wenham
• 1982–1987: Graeme MacDonald
• 1987–1992: Alan Yentob
• 1992–1996: Michael Jackson
• 1996–1999: Mark Thompson
• 1999–2004: Jane Root
• 2004–2008: Roly Keating
• 2008–present: Janice Hadlow

The channel forms part of the BBC Vision executive group, and is answerable to the head of that department, and to the BBC Trust.

Programming[link]

BBC Two’s remit is to be a mixed-genre channel appealing to a broad adult audience with programmes of depth and substance. It should carry the greatest amount and range of knowledge-building programming of any BBC television channel, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.

— BBC Two remit^[6]

BBC Two's remit historically was one screening programmes targeting the arts, culture, drama and some comedy, and appealing to audiences not already served by BBC1 or ITV. Over its first thirty or so years the channel developed a reputation for screening highly praised and prestigious drama series, amongst these Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) or 1996's, critically acclaimed Our Friends in the North. The channels "highbrow" profile is also in part attributable to a long history of demanding documentaries of all types, beginning with Civilisation and The Ascent of Man in the 1960s. Like the early Channel 4, BBC2 also established for itself a reputation as a champion of independent and international cinema, under the Screen 2 brand.

The channel has sometimes been judged, increasingly in more recent years, to have moved away from this original role and to have moved closer to the mainstream. Since the launch of the digital-only BBC Four, the BBC has been accused in particular of shifting its more highbrow output to the new channel, which a minority (7.5% in the final quarter of 2010)^[7] of viewers do not receive. BBC Four's remit is very similar to that of the earlier remit of BBC2, and contains a lot of documentaries and arts programming. It has been perceived by some that this strategy is to allow BBC Two to show more popular programmes and to secure higher ratings.^[8] Since 2004 there have been some signs of an attempt to return closer to parts of BBC Two's earlier output with the arts strand The Culture Show. Its most popular programme at the moment is Top Gear.

Currently, a lot of BBC Two's output have previously, or subsequently been shown on other channels. Some of these programmes are repeats of popular or flagship programmes from BBC Four in a late night strand, originally called BBC Four on Two but now unbranded, for the benefit of audiences without access to BBC Four. Other programmes are moved to the channel as a result of their success on BBC Three or Four, so that subsequent series are well received. An example of this is the BBC Three series Torchwood that was transferred to the channel following the success of the first series. BBC Two is also used as a testing ground for programmes prior to their moving to the flagship BBC One: such examples include Have I Got News for You.

Another founding part of BBC Two was to provide educational and community programming on the BBC, as part of its public service remit. The educational section of this commitment saw BBC2 broadcast a large amount of programming for the Open University, who co-produced programming with the corporation, and saw the channel broadcast BBC Schools programmes from 1983 until the programmes were transferred to the BBC Learning Zone in 2010.

As a result of the channel's commitment to community broadcasting, the channel produced the symbolic Open Space series, a strand developed in the early 1970s in which members of the public would be allotted half an hour of television time, and given a level of editorial and technical training in order to produce for themselves a film on an issue most important to them. BBC2's Community Programme Unit kept this aspect of the channel's tradition alive into the 1990s in the form of Video Diaries and later Video Nation. The Community Programmes Unit was disbanded in 2004.

BBC Two show in the morning, kid show from strands CBBC and CBeebies. First, 6am til 7am CBeebies block is shown (everyday), then at 7am til 8.30am CBBC block is shown (weekdays only), then at 8.30am til 11.35am or (11.30am if Daily Politics is shown, mainly Wednesdays) CBeebies block is shown again (only weekdays). On Saturdays, the CBBC block is shown from 7am til 12noon (at 11.40am a repeat of MOTD Kickabout is shown again from the repeat shown on the CBBC Channel at 7.40am that same day). On Sundays, the CBBC block is shown from 7am til 10am (except if special events are shown).

On weekday holidays at 11.30am movies are shown instead of shows for ex. Ready Steady Cook, The Pink Panther Show, Meerkat Manor or BBC World News. Mainly the movies are original or black and white, not modern movies like shown on BBC One or Three.

On friday nights when Sports Relief or Comic Relief is shown, a 40 minute part is shown at 10pm while the BBC News at Ten is on BBC One, and the National Lottery is shown at 11.30pm ish.

Some BBC Two programming is simulcast or repeated in High definition on separate channel BBC HD.

Presentation[link]

As well as programmes, BBC Two has also proved memorable for its numerous idents — various short films shown in between programme junctions that serve as the channel identity. Nearly all of the identity packages used since the channels launch in 1964 have featured a prominent numeral '2' in the design. Notable designs include the electronic double striped 2, the white TWO ident: the only ident not to use a numeral '2' and most notably the 1991 '2's.

The 1991 '2's featured a serif numeral '2' being at the centre of an, initially art related scene; however the idents moved away from this style later on as the stations style changed. The expansive set of idents from 1991 to 2001 — lasting over a decade — are generally regarded as the best idents ever produced for a television channel; they ended in November 2001. The BBC corporate logo was updated within the idents in October 1997, though the idents moved away from the original viridian colour scheme in these latter years. The subsequent presentation style was introduced on 19 November 2001 and kept the same figure '2', but in a yellow background and given a personality.

The current presentational style feature the theme of a "Window on the World", with the '2' numeral providing that view. Introduced on 18 February 2007, the new look also saw the channel adopt a new teal coloured box logo, featuring the BBC logo above the name 'TWO' in the font Avenir.

Regional variations[link]

BBC Two also has regional variations in the nations: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Nations versions of BBC Two share the same idents, but with the nation name in the BBC Two box. BBC Two Scotland shows a lot of specifically Scottish programming on the channel, as well as its sister channel BBC One Scotland, and the schedules are often mixed around to match. BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC Two Wales both have the option to opt out, however they generally stick to the network schedule, only opting out a couple of times each week. Until December 2008, BBC Wales broadcast a special, digital-only channel, BBC 2W, which contained more opt-outs than analogue-only BBC Two Wales. BBC Scotland occasionally broadcast Gaelic-language programmes under the banner BBC Two Alba.

In England, each of the English regions has the option to opt out of the network programming on the analogue feed, and replace it with local programming. However this is usually only done in exceptional circumstances, as all regular regional programming has been transferred to BBC One, and the English regions are not available on digital on BBC Two. There is no specific BBC Two England, this role is fulfilled by the network BBC Two.

Accessibility[link]

The BBC announced in May 2008 that it had achieved its aim for all programming to have subtitles for viewers with hearing difficulties.^[9][10] These are available on the Ceefax and BBC Red Button services. The BBC also offers audio description on some popular programmes^[11] for visually impaired-viewers. The percentage of the BBC's total television output with audio description available is 10%, having been increased from 8% in 2008.^[12]

High-definition[link]

Currently, programmes from BBC Two are shown in HD on the dedicated BBC HD channel, alongside programmes from BBC's Three and Four, as well as some select series from CBBC and CBeebies. However, in plans outlined by the director general Mark Thompson on 6 October 2011, BBC HD will close to be replaced by a high definition simulcast of BBC Two. This BBC Two HD will work much the same way as BBC One HD currently.^[13] This move allows the corporation to save £2.1 million, used to count towards its budget deficit following the freezing of the licence fee and the additional financial responsibility of addition services.^[14]

See also[link]

BBC portal

	Book: BBC Channels (UK)
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• History of BBC television idents

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC Two at BBC Online
• BBC Two – Happy 40th Birthday at BBC Online

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Arnold Bennett
Born	1867 Hanley, Staffordshire, England
Died	1931 Chiltern Court, London
Cause of death	Typhoid
Occupation	Novelist

Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as journalism, propaganda and film.

Early life[link]

Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the family were able to move to a larger house between Hanley and Burslem.^[1] Bennett was educated locally in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Arnold was employed by his father—his duties included rent collecting. He was unhappy working for his father for little financial reward, and the theme of parental miserliness is important in his novels. In his spare time he was able to do a little journalism, but his breakthrough as a writer was to come after he had moved from the Potteries. At the age of twenty-one, he left his father's practice and went to London as a solicitor's clerk.

Career[link]

Journalism and nonfiction[link]

Bennett won a literary competition in Tit-Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. In 1894, he became assistant editor of the periodical Woman. He noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial which was bought by the syndicate for 75 pounds. He then wrote another. This became The Grand Babylon Hotel. Just over four years later, his first novel, A Man from the North, was published to critical acclaim and he became editor of the magazine.

From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing, giving up the editorship. He continued to write journalism despite the success of his career as a novelist. In 1926, at the suggestion of Lord Beaverbrook, he began writing an influential weekly article on books for the Evening Standard newspaper.

As well as the novels, much of Bennett's non-fiction work has stood the test of time. One of his most popular non-fiction works, which is still read to this day, is the self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. His diaries have yet to be published in full, but extracts from them are often quoted in the British press.^[2]

Move to France[link]

In 1903, he moved to Paris, where other great artists from around the world had converged on Montmartre and Montparnasse. Bennett spent the next eight years writing novels and plays. Bennett believed that ordinary people had the potential to be the subject of interesting books. In this respect, an influence which Bennett himself acknowledged was the French writer Maupassant whose "Une Vie" inspired "The Old Wives' Tale." Maupassant is also one of the writers on whom Richard Larch, the protagonist of Bennett's first (and obviously semi-autobiographical) novel, A Man from the North, tries in vain to model his own writing.

In 1908 The Old Wives' Tale was published and was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world. After a visit to America in 1911, where he had been publicized and acclaimed as no other visiting writer since Dickens, he returned to England where Old Wives' Tale was reappraised and hailed as a masterpiece.

Public service[link]

During the First World War he became Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information. (At that time the word propaganda did not have the negative implications it acquired later in the twentieth century). His appointment was made directly on the recommendation of Lord Beaverbrook, who also recommended him as Deputy Minister of that Department at the end of the war.^[3] He refused a knighthood in 1918.

Osbert Sitwell,^[4] in a letter to James Agate,^[5] notes that Bennett was not, despite current views, "the typical businessman, with his mean and narrow outlook." Sitwell cited a letter from Bennett to a friend of Agate, who remains anonymous, in Ego 5:

I find I am richer this year than last; so I enclose a cheque for 500 pounds for you to distribute among young writers and artists and musicians who may need the money. You will know, better than I do, who they are. But I must make one condition, that you do not reveal that the money has come from me, or tell anyone about it.

Final years[link]

He separated from his French wife in 1922 and fell in love with the actress Dorothy Cheston, with whom he stayed for the rest of his life. He won the 1923 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Riceyman Steps.

He died of typhoid at his home in Baker Street, London, on 27 March 1931, after returning from a visit^[6] to France. His ashes are buried in Burslem cemetery. Their daughter, Virginia Eldin, lived in France and was president of the Arnold Bennett Society.

References to the potteries in his works[link]

In 1902, Anna of the Five Towns, the first of a succession of stories which detailed life in the Potteries, appeared. His most famous works are the Clayhanger trilogy and The Old Wives' Tale. These books draw on his experience of life in the Potteries, as did most of his best work. In his novels the Potteries are referred to as "the Five Towns"; Bennett felt that the name was more euphonious than "the Six Towns" so Fenton was omitted. The real towns and their Bennett counterparts are:

All but one of these are mild disguises; "Knype" may possibly be taken from the nearby village of Knypersley near Biddulph, and Knypersley Hall. Neighbouring Oldcastle, where Edwin Clayhanger went to school, is Newcastle under Lyme. Axe, towards which Tertius Ingpen lived, is Leek.

Several of his books set in the Potteries have been made into films (for example The Card starring Alec Guinness) and television mini-series (such as "Anna of the Five Towns" and "Clayhanger").

Criticism[link]

Critically, Bennett has not always had an easy ride. His output was prodigious and, by his own admission, based on maximizing his income rather than from creative necessity.

As Bennett put it:

Am I to sit still and see other fellows pocketing two guineas apiece for stories which I can do better myself? Not me. If anyone imagines my sole aim is art for art’s sake, they are cruelly deceived.

Contemporary critics—Virginia Woolf in particular—perceived weaknesses in his work. To her and other Bloomsbury authors, Bennett represented the "old guard" in literary terms. His style was traditional rather than modern, which made him an obvious target for those challenging literary conventions.^[7][8] Max Beerbohm criticized him as a social climber who had forgotten his origins. He drew a mature and well fed Bennett expounding, "All to plan, you see" to a younger tougher version of himself, who replies: "Yes—but MY plan."

For much of the 20th Century, Bennett's work was tainted by this perception; it was not until the 1990s that a more positive view of his work became widely accepted. The noted English critic John Carey was a major influence on his rehabilitation. He praises him in his 1992 book, The Intellectuals and the Masses. ISBN 978-0-571-16926-9. , declaring Bennett to be his "hero" because his writings "represent a systematic dismemberment of the intellectuals' case against the masses" (p. 152).

Quotations[link]

• My mother is far too clever to understand anything she doesn't like.
• Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

List of works[link]