This weekend a new £3 million gallery, Experience TV, will be launched at Bradford's National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. It showcases a world-class television collection, as well as offering visitors a hands-on, behind-the-scenes experience. EMMA CLAYTON looks at how the gallery focuses on the social impact of television More than 80 years ago Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first working television to a group of sceptical scientists. They weren't particularly impressed.

The scientists couldn't see what practical or social purpose it served. "Now you have got it," one of them asked, "what are you going to do with it?"

Today the power and influence of television remains unmatched by any other invention of the 20th Century.

Television unites nations. It brings us together like no other medium it's the common ground we all share. In 1953 the Queen's Coronation attracted worldwide viewing figures of more than 82 million. Over recent weeks more than 30 billion of us in 213 countries watched the World Cup. Several million of us in the UK are currently watching Big Brother which, like other popular reality TV shows or dramas, has become "water cooler TV"; the kind of TV we talk about it at work or in the hairdressers.

Then there are the iconic TV moments that go down in history. Where were you when you saw the September 11 terrorist attacks on television? Or when Charles and Diana get married in 1981? Do you recall the moment Den served Angie divorce papers on the 1986 EastEnders Christmas Day special, Red Rum winning his third Grand National 30 years ago or OJ Simpson being found not guilty in 1995?

Experience TV, a fascinating new gallery occupying the entire third floor of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, looks at the role that TV has played in our society ever since John Logie Baird produced the first moving image in 1925.

As well as giving visitors the chance to make their own TV programmes, learn about pre- and post-production processes and see displays of TV equipment through the ages including 1920s contraptions pioneered by Baird there are zones devoted to the business side of television's development and its power and social impact.

"The business side looks at the funding of television and the way programmes are marketed and scheduled for particular audiences," says Experience TV curator Martin Lenton. "This influences the ratings. This section of the gallery features a showreel of classic TV moments followed by viewing figures they attracted. It's part of looking at the power of television and its impact on our lives. We remember where we were when we saw these TV moments, and how they made us feel. They say a lot about the changing nature of television; how it has evolved with and had a powerful effect on society."

The showreel includes the moment ITV's hit quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? got its first top prize winner. There have been other game show millionaires since there was one last weekend, on Ant and Dec's Poker Face show but when Judith Keppel said "Final answer" to a cool million it was a moment none of the 19 million people watching it will forget.

Other top TV moments on the showreel include Bradford's Gareth Gates losing out to Will Young on the first series of Pop Idol, England's victory against Germany in the 1966 World Cup and a Morecambe and Wise Christmas special watched by more than 20 million viewers.

The gallery also includes a viewing room where you can watch iconic news stories on a screen, including the September 11 attacks and collapse of the World Trade Centre and man's first steps on the moon.

"We've deliberately made this a quiet, separate area because we want people to reflect on these TV moments," says Martin. "They are moments we all watched. They raise questions about how we see the world, how we remember moments of history, how they affect our opinions and our lives in general."

The museum's TV Heaven section which features a delightful display of memorabilia including Zippy and George from children's show Rainbow, a full-size replica of a Dalek and a Jim'll Fix It badge has been updated with digital television screenings of more than 1,000 programmes, including classic comedies, children's shows, documentaries and dramas. The programmes can now be watched in a new, state-of-the-art screening room.

"It will be used by school and adult groups as well as general visitors," says Martin. "The educational value of TV Heaven shows the power television has had on the development of society, politics and programming. It inspires us to think about the impact of TV on the society we now live in."

Richard Woolley, who occupies the Greg Dyke Chair of Film and Television at York University, says in the museum's Archive brochure that going on a TV viewing strike since March 2003 allowed him to prove how "powerful, intrusive, diverting, mind-numbing and phobia-inducing television has become".

"Channels sprout up like weeds, broadcasters digitise, diversify and dumb down, news infiltrates every second of the day and night, Richard, Judy and Auntie Oprah decide what books we should read while film, theatre, music and art gurus dictate our taste in eye and ear culture," he says.

"Commentators and programmers claim to defend free speech and uphold objectivity while in practice relentlessly preaching the one-sided, post Cold War gospel of Western Supremacy and Capitalist Rules OK. Reality TV tells the truth because it's real but goes little further than revealing the unreal life of those living their lives for TV, Big Brother is not watching you, you are watching Big Brother and being brainwashed, mangled, soft-soaped and spun dry day in day out like never before in history."

Television is powerful, says Richard, only because we watch it, "not because it possesses some inherent strength or quality".

Visit Experience TV and see whether or not you agree. Whether its power lies in the fact that we watch it or not, television has enough of a hold over us to move, amuse, anger, disgust, entertain and educate and its images have become important moments in history.

The early 21st Century will probably be remembered for the phenomenon of the reality TV show, a genre which will be explored in a discussion at the museum this week, held as part of a two-day series of events launching Experience TV.

Called A Star is Born, the event includes a discussion on the influence and merits of reality TV shows and features Kate Betts, winner of Channel 4's recent The Play's The Thing which searched for a West End play by an unknown writer. Kate will be joined by past winners of Channel 4's Musicality and Operatunity at the event on Friday at 7.30pm.

l Experience TV opens to the public on Friday. For a report on all attractions in the gallery see tomorrow's Telegraph & Argus.