Oldest TV set in Britain: Built in 1936... and it's only had two careful owners

For £5,000 you might have expected a bigger, flatter screen.

But this television does come with 75 years of broadcasting history – and you can still hook it up to a Freeview box.

Built in 1936, the Marconi type-702 is the oldest working television set in Britain.

It was bought for just under £100 only three weeks after transmissions in Britain began. And with just one channel broadcasting for two hours a day, there wasn’t much need for a remote control.

But what the television lacks in modern technology, it makes up for in reliability. Only 30 per cent of its components have been replaced during its lifetime, all with identical parts.

The 75-year-old set has a 12in screen contained in a walnut and mahogany case, with the picture reflected on to a mirror for the viewer to look at.

It is now being auctioned along with its original invoice, made out to a Mr G. B. Davis of Dulwich.

Unfortunately for Mr Davis, his viewing was cut short when the local transmitter burned down just three days after he bought the set on November 26, and his area could not receive pictures again for ten years.

The TV has a pre-sale estimate of £5,000, but experts at Bonhams expect it to fetch much more. It cost Mr Davis £99 and 15 shillings 0d – more than half the annual average wage at the time and equivalent to almost £4,000 today. 

Its serial number is H1007, and it is thought the sequence began at 1,000, making it number 007.

Bonhams specialist Laurence Fisher said: ‘This is being sold by the late owner’s family and is the oldest working TV set in Britain.

‘Its case is made from walnut and mahogany to give a two-tone effect and doesn’t have wheels and is quite a big lump.

‘The picture is reflected on to its lid and at the time it was bought there was only one channel. Unfortunately for the original owner, three days after he bought it the Crystal Palace burned down and that was where the transmitter was.

‘His area did not receive pictures again until after the war. But at least people who visited him would know he had [a television], even if he couldn’t use it.

‘Most programmes at the time would be live and there were plays which were grand productions like you would have at the theatre.’

But as revealed by the listings above, from the day the television was purchased, the same programmes were often shown twice a day – proving that frequent repeats are not a recent invention.