Days like these: 16 February 1957

In the postwar years BBC TV, in line with government policy, had operated the “Toddlers’ Truce”, a television-free hour between 6pm and 7pm designed to let parents get the children into bed. The BBC were happy – it saved them money – but the advent of commercial television brought pressure from the ITV companies, who saw it as lost advertising revenue. The Postmaster-General, Charles Hill, weighed in, criticising the Truce as BBC paternalism. On Saturday 16 February 1957, it disappeared: the BBC’s first transmission was Six-Five Special.