How did the BBC's cameras first take to the air?

Unlike the Blue Peter elephant or the first episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, Operation ‘Pegasus’ didn’t make it into the BBC’s recent choice of highlights from its 100 years. But it was a significant event in its history — the first time its cameras broadcast live from the skies

Still firmly on the ground, BBC cameraman Duncan Anderson wields the Marconi Mk1a Image Orthicon camera in the door of the Bristol Freighter during preparations for Operation ‘Pegasus’. With him stands assistant television outside broadcast manager Peter Dimmock.
Still firmly on the ground, BBC cameraman Duncan Anderson wields the Marconi Mk1a Image Orthicon camera in the door of the Bristol Freighter during preparations for Operation ‘Pegasus’. With him stands assistant television outside broadcast manager Peter Dimmock. GETTY

A succession of Olympic Games, beginning in London during 1948, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the 1966 World Cup, and countless other major national or international events — Alan Chivers was the pioneering producer who brought them to the nation’s flickering screens. For years, Chivers was the British Broadcasting Corporation’s behind-the-scenes king of the live outside broadcast, whether in the form of a Brian Rix Whitehall farce, or a famed weekend of coverage showing climbers ascending the Old Man of Hoy. His work helped the BBC set a standard for televising big occasions that rightly persists to this day.

So, when

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