Watch with Mother: Trailblazing Children's Television

Watch with Mother: Trailblazing Children's Television is at Alexandra Palace on Thursday 22 October, a talk on the early days of children's television on the BBC. It's led by Andrew Martin, who spent more than 30 years in BBC Television archiving and worked on the online programme catalogue BBC Genome, later the BBC Programme Index. He co-authored Doctor Who: A Book of Lists with the late Justin Richards and compiled and edited Sound and Vision, a catalogue of British television from 1929-39.

The setting has its own history to bring to the table. Alexandra Palace is where British television began, with the BBC moving in in 1935 and making the first regular high-definition broadcast from its studios on 2 November 1936. Those studios spawned enduring formats like the first television gardening and cookery shows, and the first dedicated children's programme arrived in 1946. The Palace now works as a Victorian entertainment centre that closes when no event is on, and its transmitter mast was named one of the 100 objects telling the BBC's first century.

The talk runs from 18:00 to 20:00 in the Creativity Pavilion, with doors opening at 17:45. Standard tickets are £10 and booking is required.