Television career
In 1936 she joined the fledgling television service at Alexandra Palace, London, and became the first female television producer.[4] From January 1937 she was active in developing the service and producing television programmes (e.g. Clothes-Line, the first television programme dedicated to fashion history, with James Laver and Pearl Binder). She was a working mother with a child, at a time when married women were expected to stay at home and not go out to work.[5]
When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the BBC television service was closed for the duration of the war. She spent the war on BBC Radio and the Ministry of Information. She created the Home Intelligence division, and in 1940 set up a system for monitoring the public mood regarding the war effort. She wrote daily reports on British morale, which have been published.[6]
When the television service resumed in 1946 she returned to working for it – producing programmes on all subjects apart from drama and light entertainment. She was appointed Head of Television Talks in 1954. She retired in 1958.
She encouraged David Attenborough to join BBC Television in 1952, appointed staff and commissioned ground-breaking programmes – such as Zoo Quest; The Quiz Programme; Animal, Vegetable, Mineral; Your Life in Their Hands and A Matter of Life and Death (early medical programmes), as well as programmes for children – Muffin the Mule (with Anne Hogarth, who pulled the strings), Andy Pandy, and Bill and Ben The Flowerpot Men (with Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird).
After retiring from BBC in 1958 she became a senior figure in the Consumers' Association, which produced the first comparative tests of consumer products, including contraceptives.[3]