Happy 80th Birthday, Television !

I never know ch4 birthday was the same day as the bbc's

I'm confused as to what we're getting here. I thought we were getting a live broadcast or something, recreating the night with actual old kit etc, and I suppose I expected a behind the scenes as a separate programme as well.

Are we just getting the one documentary?

In a unique experiment, Dallas Campbell, Professor Danielle George and Dr Hugh Hunt join forces in an attempt to restage the very first official broadcast on British television, exactly 80 years after it made history. The very first official broadcast came from Alexandra Palace on 2nd November 1936 - but there are no surviving recordings. To find out just what went on, this 21st-century team attempts to piece back together and recreate every aspect of the show from scratch - from the variety acts to the cameras - using the original technology and filming techniques to capture the excitement of the day. The team uncovers the mixed influences of high-minded radio and bawdy variety shows on early TV, at a time when it was still a science experiment and not a mass medium. Dallas learns how much harder his job would have been 80 years ago, when the first television announcer Leslie Mitchell was plastered in bizarre make-up and given a cue for 'action' that bordered on physical assault.