Between the wars
The 20th century1901 to 1945
Life outside politics kept changing too. Public broadcasting arrived in 1922, when the BBC began sending out radio programmes, giving households across the country a shared source of news and entertainment they had never had before, all from a single new medium reaching directly into people's homes. The BBC kept building on that success: in 1936 it launched the world's first regular television service, turning what had been an experiment into something viewers could tune into on an ongoing basis, a lead that other broadcasters around the world would later try to follow.
Not everything in this period moved forward smoothly, though. In 1929 the Great Depression struck, and unemployment rose sharply, hitting Britain's older heavy industries hardest while newer trades struggled to fill the gap left behind. The years between the wars therefore mixed genuine technical progress with real and lasting economic hardship for working families across the country.
What to remember
| The Great Depression | 1929 Followed by high unemployment, worst in heavy industry. |
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| The BBC's first radio broadcasts | 1922 Radio broadcasting began, changing how news and entertainment reached the public. |
| The BBC starting the world's first regular television service | 1936 The BBC launched the world's first regular television service. |
| The Great Depression of the 1930s | badly affecting traditional heavy industries such as shipbuilding, while new industries like automobiles and aviation developed Its effects were felt differently in different parts of the UK. |
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Everything in The 20th centuryor the whole course, from the beginning