Polish Television will celebrate its 70th anniversary on Sunday 13 November. On this occasion, an anniversary concert will be held at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw to be broadcast on Channel 1 of TVP.

During the celebratory concert archive materials of the Polish Television will be presented. Deceased stars such as Anna Jantar and the Cabaret of Older Men will be shown in the form of holograms.

The audience is anticipating a sentimental journey. TVP emphasises that there will be no lack of reminiscences, anecdotes, fragments of cult programmes and performances of stars who shaped the tastes of generations. There will also be contemporary accents, and viewers will be entertained by musical guests including Edyta Górniak and a well-known jazzman Włodek Pawlik.

Polish Television also celebrated its 70th anniversary at this year’s Opole Festival in June. The concert ‘Tych lat nie odda nikt’ (These years will not be given away by anyone) was organised then. Performers at the event included Maryla Rodowicz, Krzysztof Cugowski, Jan Pietrzak, Pectus, Viki Gabor, Feel, Felicjan Andrzejczak, Halina Mlynkova and Helena Vondrackova.

On 25 October 1952, viewers were able to watch the programme for the first time on Polish Television. The Experimental Television Station of the Institute of Communications, on the eve of the Sejm elections, broadcast a 30-minute montage of art forms by Marta Nowosad, Jerzy Michotek, Witold Gruca and Jan Mroziński, which was received on 24 ‘Leningrad’ receivers placed in clubs and community centres. Three months later, TVP began regular broadcasting, with it first operating once a week and increasing in frequency in subsequent years. On 1 February 1961, daily television broadcasting began.

Until 1989, TVP was the only television broadcaster in Poland.

Adrian Andrzejewski