Page "A. J. P. Taylor" Paragraph 24

The Second World War gave Taylor the opportunity to branch out from print journalism, initially into radio and then later television.

On 17 March 1942 Taylor made the first of seven appearances on The World at War-Your Questions Answered broadcast by BBC Forces ' Radio.

After the war Taylor became one of the first television historians.

His appearances began with his role as a panellist on the BBC's In The News from 1950 to 1954.

Here he was noted for his argumentative style, and in one episode he declined to acknowledge the presence of the other panellists.

The press came to refer to him as the " sulky don " and in 1954 he was dropped.

From 1955 Taylor was a panellist on ITV's rival discussion programme Free Speech, where he remained until the series ended in 1961.

In 1957, 1957 – 1958 and 1961 he made a number of half-hour programmes on ITV in which he lectured without notes on a variety of topics, such as the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the First World War.

These were huge ratings successes.

Despite earlier strong feelings against the BBC, he lectured for a BBC historical series in 1961 and made more series for it in 1963, 1976, 1977 and 1978.

He also hosted additional series for ITV in 1964, 1966 and 1967.

In Edge of Britain in 1980 he toured the towns of northern England.

Taylor's final TV appearance was in the series How Wars End in 1985, where the effects of Parkinson's disease on him were apparent.