''Second City Firsts'' is a British drama anthology series of single plays, broadcast by the
BBC, all lasting thirty minutes. Recorded at
BBC Pebble Mill
Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne o ...
in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, or sometimes filmed on location, the series was broadcast between 1973 and 1978.
The series title referred both to Pebble Mill's location in England's
Second City, and the fact that the series commissioned an unprecedented amount of first-time writers.
[Re-viewing Television History: Critical Issues in Television Historiography](_blank)
ed. Helen Wheatley, pp.91-92
The 1974 episode ''Girl'', about a
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
relationship between two members in the
Women's Royal Army Corps
The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...
, featured the first
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
(and same-sex) kiss on British television, between
Alison Steadman (as Jackie) and
Myra Frances
Myra Frances (13 April 1942 – 30 March 2021) was a British actress known for her role in the drama series '' Survivors'' and in ''Doctor Who''.
Career
In the 1974 ''Second City Firsts'' episode "Girl", Frances and Alison Steadman performed th ...
(as Harvey). The recording of the episode was discovered in the
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
archives decades later, and
digitized
DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a Digital data, digital (i ...
by the BBC. In 2016, it was added to the
BBC Store's "Prejudice and Pride Collection" and made available for
streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...
.
The 1975 episode ''Club Havana'' featured actress
Julie Walters
Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a B ...
in her first role on British TV.
The 1976 episode ''
Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration ''Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration'' is a television play written by Ian McEwan and directed by Mike Newell, part of the ''Second City Firsts'' series recorded by the BBC at Pebble Mill and broadcast on 10 April 1976. McEwan wrote the play in 1974, ...
'' was written by
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
, his screen debut.
Series
# 15 October 1973 to 19 November 1973
# 15 February 1974 to 25 March 1974
# 28 October 1974 to 16 December 1974
# 20 March 1975 to 24 April 1975
# 25 October 1975 to 29 November 1975
# 13 January 1976 to 24 April 1976
# 14 November 1976 to 12 December 1976
# 5 March 1977 to 6 June 1977
# 8 April 1978 to 13 May 1978
Archive holdings
Of the 53 plays in the series, 28 survive.
["Kaleidoscope BBC Television Drama Research Guide, 1936, 2011", eds Simon Coward, Chris Perry and Richard Down, Kaleidoscope Ltd, 2011, pp.2175-2179]
See also
Other BBC2 drama anthology series include
* ''
Theatre 625
''Theatre 625'' is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production a ...
''
* ''
BBC2 Playhouse
''BBC2 Playhouse'' is a UK anthology television series of one-hour episodes produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Among its many performers were Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Paul Scofield, Deborah ...
''
* ''
Thirty-Minute Theatre''
References
External links
*{{IMDb title, id=0259806, title=Second City Firsts
1970s British anthology television series
1973 British television series debuts
1978 British television series endings
1970s British drama television series
Lost BBC episodes
BBC television dramas
BBC Birmingham productions
English-language television shows