Three online collections are launched to mark the BBC’s celebrations for its 100th birthday.
A shirt worn by Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is among 100 objects featured in online collections marking the corporation’s 2022 centenary.
They include Roy Plomley’s 1941 Desert Island Discs proposal letter and a 1935 clipping about the corporation’s move to appoint its first female announcer.
The collections on the BBC 100 website highlight its most iconic objects, people and contributors.
It also has a year-by-year timeline.
The three collections are:
- 100 Objects, which features technology, props, documents, artwork and buildings, also includes the classic BBC microphone and the mirror globe used as an early TV ident. They are curated in partnership with a selected museums, including the Science Museum Group.
- 100 Faces is a collection of photographs from the BBC archive, ranging form correspondents in the field to actors on set and monarchs addressing the nation. It was devised with the Radio Times.
- 100 Voices is an oral history collection, which reveals the stories of the men and women who worked at the BBC, exploring topics including news and elections, the birth pouf TV, radio reinvented and pioneering women. It is curated in partnership with the University of Sussex.
Robert Seatter, the BBC’s head of history, said the BBC “has an amazing history which belongs to us all” and that the digital resources and partner exhibitions “provide something to intrigue audiences of all ages”.
BBC History has worked with cultural and academic partners for the BBC’s centenary, including the British Film Institute. Its list of 100 BBC Gamechangers, announced in the spring, will chronologically list the 100 BBC TV programmes said to have changed the landscape of British TV.
The Science Museum Group will digitise 1,000 BBC objects for the first time and launch an exhibition and events programme across the UK.
The centenary will also be marked by other regional museum partners with collections and displays, including the Museum of London; Leicester City Museum; Manchester Museum; Discovery Museum, Newcastle; Sheffield Museum; Liverpool Museum and Showtown Museum, Blackpool.
There will also be a collaboration with the British Library.
The Science Museum Group’s head, Sir Ian Blatchford, said they are “delighted” to be part of the celebrations and “to be telling the story of a century of broadcasting”, adding the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford will be exploring broadcast technologies in the future in an exhibition called Switched On.
Last year the corporation announced special content including the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Women’s Euros, the World Cup and Commonwealth Games, new dramas and comedies plus Frozen Planet II, while BBC Three is set to return as a broadcast channel in February.