''Starlight'' is an early British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

programme, one of the first regular series to be broadcast by the

BBC Television Service BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

. The first edition was broadcast on 3 November 1936, the day after the service officially began, and it continued to be broadcast until the suspension of television for the duration of the

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during 1939. Following the resumption of BBC television during 1946, ''Starlight'' was one of the few pre-war programmes to be reinstated, and it was broadcast for a further three years until 1949. A

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

, the programmes would feature comedians, singers, dancers and various other entertainment acts. One notable edition of the 1930s gave popular singer

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...

her first television appearance. As with all other

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programmes of the time, ''Starlight'' was transmitted

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from the studios at

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. The shows were not recorded, and no material other than still photographs exists for the series now.

References

*Vahimagi, Tise. ''British Television: An Illustrated Guide''.

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. 1994. . 1936 British television series debuts 1949 British television series endings 1930s British television series 1940s British television series BBC Television Service (TV network) original programming Lost BBC episodes 1936 establishments in the United Kingdom Black-and-white British television shows {{BBC-tv-prog-stub