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Cultural highlights of 1954
Television: UK
New shows
• The Grove Family (BBC from 9 April). The first British television soap
opera. It runs until 1956.
• BBC Television News and Newsreel (BBC, from 5 July). News.
• Panorama (BBC, from 11 November). Weekly current affairs series, still
running in 2004.
Radio: UK
Single productions
• Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (BBC Third Programme, Monday 25
January). Sometimes acclaimed as 'radio's greatest script', Thomas's poetic
account of a day in Llaregyb was recorded the previous day with Richard Burton
in the lead role as First Voice.
New shows
• Hancock's Half Hour (BBC, from 2 November). First 16-episode series that
led within months to H-H-Hancock (Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock of 23 Railway
Cuttings, East Cheam, aka The Lad Himself) becoming a phenomenally successful
comedian, perhaps the most renowned in British broadcasting history. The final
radio programme: 29 December 1959.
Television: US
New shows
• Disneyland (Walt Disney for ABC, from 27 October). Children's.
• Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter (Walt Disney for ABC, from 15
December). Historical adventure starring Fess Parker in the Disneyland slot;
best remembered for its massively successful theme song (a number one hit in the
US in March 1955) and coon-tailed cap.
• Father Knows Best (CBS from 3 October). Sitcom starring Robert Young. It runs until
1961.
• Lassie (CBS from 12 September). Dog-hero adventures. Series runs exactly
17 years to the day.
• Miss America (from 11 September). Beauty contest.
• The Morning Show (CBS, from 16 March). Early morning news magazine, hosted
by Walter Cronkite, to compete with NBC's Today with Dave Garroway.
• The Secret Storm (CBS, from 1 February). Soap opera. Start of a 20-year run.
• Tonight (NBC, from 27 September). Late night chat show, hosted
by Steve Allen, previously broadcast locally in New York. Still on air in 2005
(now with David Letterman).
• Your Show of Shows.
Television: Canada
New shows
• La Famille Plouffe (CBC, in French and English editions)
Film
• Satyajit Ray’s first feature film Pather Panchali.
Print media
• William Golding: Lord of the Flies.
• J R R Tolkien: Lord of the Rings.
Chronomedia 1954
