Television

A look at the way that TV affects and manipulates viewers.

Goes back to TV's earliest flickering beginnings, in the first primitive TV camera built by the eccentric Scots inventor John Logie Baird - whose previous triumph had been the indestructible sock - out of hat-boxes, sealing-wax and an old tea chest. (The Guardian)

The development and impact of outside broadcasts and live coverage of news, sport and pageantry. Peter Dimmock, then in charge of OBs at the BBC, recalls how the coronation in 1953 was a turning-point. When Prince Charles married Lady Di in 1981, 750,000,000 people in 74 countries followed their progress up the aisle. (Daily Telegraph)

Continuing the worldwide history of the medium, this programme moves on to television news, tracing its development from the first TV news in America in the forties to today's high-powered satellite broadcasts. (Daily Telegraph)

Looks at the awesome ability of on-screen images to evoke a massive public response, as with the pictures of the starving children of Biafra in 1968; to shape the nature of the response, with American footage showing how protesters in close-up look far more violent than when filmed in long-shot; and ultimately to shape events like Nixon's downfall. (The Guardian)

From news to fiction as the series moves behind the scenes to look at how some of the most popular drama series are produced, what they cost and how they came about. Hollywood is the home of most of the world's TV drama, but there is also a look at Japanese Samurai drama, Brazilian soap opera and Nigerian comedy. (Daily Telegraph)