First broadcast as the 'BBC Television Service' on November 2, 1936, although the BBC had been broadcasting experimental and test transmissions in a variety of formats since 1929.
when war broke out they went off the air halfway through a Mickey Mouse cartoon. They resumed with the same cartoon after the war. So I've heard, but didn't have a telly at the time myself. Don't think many people did - it wasn't till the Coronation that people started rushing out to get one.