Jasmine Bligh

Jasmine Lydia Bligh (20 May 1913 – 21 July 1991) was one of the first three BBC Television Service presenters in the 1930s. Along with Leslie Mitchell and Elizabeth Cowell, she provided continuity announcements introducing programmes in-vision.

Bligh was born in London, England and was the niece of Esme Ivo Bligh, the 9th Earl of Darnley, and also said by her biography at the National Portrait Gallery to be a descendant of Captain William Bligh, the commander famously usurped in the Mutiny on the Bounty in the 18th century.

Intending to begin a career as an actress, Bligh met with some opposition from her mother. However, she became a Charlot showgirl at the Cambridge Theatre, London, aged 17. Five years later, Bligh was struggling as an actress, and answered a BBC advertisement for female television 'hostess-announcers' - unmarried and without red hair. Both Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were chosen for the jobs out of 1,122 applicants from the British Empire. Along with Leslie Mitchell, they were seen during test transmissions from Alexandra Palace in 1936.

She rejoined the service in 1946 when television broadcasts resumed after the Second World War and was the first person to appear when broadcasting was resumed, greeting viewers with the words:

"Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?"

After twenty minutes she introduced the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933), which had been the last programme shown before the embryonic service closed in September 1939.

Her theatrical experience, however, proved very useful as she had to learn 400 words a day to speak directly to the camera. The press, at that time, described Bligh and Cowell as 'Twin Paragons', and Bligh continued when the BBC began its regular television service a year later. She became a personality in her own right, amongst other daring escapades, she was seen being given a fireman's lift and hurtling about in a motorcycle sidecar.

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