McGill on the Telly

The early 20th century was a great time of invention, innovation, fashion and fad which were all grist to Donald McGill's postcard mill. One of the most significant inventions was the television.

John Logie Baird had demonstrated the principles in the mid-1920s and some experimental broadcasting was started from 1930 but it wasn't until 1936 that the BBC started broadcasting television on a limited basis only due to the low signal output and the high cost of television receivers. Broadcasting was stopped for the duration of the Second World War but the BBC resumed again in 1946 although Britain was suffering in the austerity of the post war years. It was the broadcasting of Queen Elizabeth's Coronation in 1953 that proved to be a pivotal point in the take-up of the television by the general public, very soon after the now ubiquitous screen was to be found in most living rooms.

The radio had inspired McGill to produce a number of postcard designs - around 20 or 30 - but I have, so far, only come across three cards by him which reference television and only one of them has an image of a TV set.

Considering that there were only sporadic broadcasts from 1930 to 1936, McGill seems to have been quite quick off the mark with his first television card in 1933.

XL 2036 A published around 1933

D Constance No. 2127 published around 1960

D Constance No. 1870 published around 1954

Whether McGill had a television I have no idea but he did appear on the BBC in November 1955 on 'What's My Line?'. This was a panel game chaired by Eamonn Andrews, who went on to host 'Crackerjack' and 'This Is Your Life'. The panel consisted of four 'celebrities of the day :

• Lady Isobel Barnett - trained as a doctor, she was the 'posh' member of the panel giving some 'class' to the proceedings although the 'Lady' title was a courtesy due to her husband being knighted. She was well known from many radio appearances.
• Gilbert Harding - formerly a policeman and actor before working for the BBC as a disc jockey and interviewer. He gave the impression of being rude and bad tempered but this was a façade according to people who knew him
• Barbara Kelly - an attractive Canadian actress who was well known in Britain for her radio and TV shows with husband Bernard Braden
• David Nixon - an urbane stage magician who appeared on numerous variety shows and hosted his own series of programmes on TV showcasing his magic skills 

The premise of the show was that a series of guests would challenge the panel to guess what they do for a living. The guest would write on a board their occupation, which the audience could see but not the panel, and then mime an action they undertook in their work. The panel could ask the guest questions, but the guest could only reply 'yes' or 'no'.

If the panel failed to guess correctly the guest was deemed to have 'beat the panel' which Donald McGill managed to do when he appeared. In reply the ever irascible Gilbert Harding commented “So you do those dirty postcards?”, to which a very dignified McGill replied “No, I am a seaside artist”.

It's interesting that McGill calls himself a 'seaside artist' and not a 'postcard artist'.

I am sure a clip from that show exists but I have been unable to find it anywhere. If you have a copy please let me know!