Happy 100th Birthday, BBC! The UK’s national broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation, is the world’s oldest national broadcaster and the first public broadcaster to reach the age of one hundred. Officially founded on 18 October 1922, the BBC has dedicated itself to rigorously documenting what is happening in the UK and across the globe.

EVERYONE’S STORY

The story of the BBC is the story of us all. Its mission to “inform, educate and entertain” has never changed. This important anniversary will be celebrated through the website BBC 100, which reflects on the unique role the BBC has played in the lives of British and global audiences. It incorporates a series of events, special editions of some of the BBC’s most popular shows, plus TV and audio documentaries covering the history of the BBC and the impact it has had nationally and internationally over the past hundred years.

100 ICONS

One of the BBC’s most exciting events, accessible worldwide via the BBC 100 website, is a trio of online exhibitions entitled 100 Objects, 100 Faces and 100 Voices. These collections showcase some of its most iconic objects, faces and voices that have featured in its centenary of history. Key objects include the shirt actor Colin Firth wore in the 1995 BBC TV series Pride and Prejudice, and notable persons include BBC founder John Reith, and one of the BBC’s most famous contributors of all time, the biologist and broadcaster David Attenborough.