TV Home Forum

1969 changeover from black & white to colour

One for the grey cells & our 'older' viewers ! (August 2010)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RJ
RJG
aberdeenboy posted:
Most of BBC2's programmes were in colour by the official launch of colour in late 1967 and many of the rest followed in 1968.

For a few months after colour started on BBC1, there were still plenty of black and white programmes. Blue Peter's already been mentioned. Initially so were the likes of Nationwide, Ask the Family and even Z Cars. But within a year, almost all new network programmes were in colour. The glaring exception was Nationwide... though I'm pretty sure the network part of the programme went into colour about 1972, though the Radio Times still appeared to suggest it was entirely black and white for some time afterwards.

(Schools were mostly in black and white for several years but that's a different matter... indeed so was the OU after it started in 1971.)


A fair bit of children's TV on BBC 1 remained black-and-white. Besides Blue Peter, which didn't go colour until well into 1970, Screen Test, for instance, was monochrome. Perhaps because, IIRC, it was made in Manchester. It was probably 1972 or thereabouts before Screen Test went colour.
AB
aberdeenboy
Good point. Although, to be fair, the bulk of children's programmes were in colour quickly.... Watch with Mother, Play School, Jackanory, children's drama.... (On the other hand when did the repeats of Champion the Wonder Horse finally end!!!!!)
SP
Steve in Pudsey
aberdeenboy posted:
The glaring exception was Nationwide... though I'm pretty sure the network part of the programme went into colour about 1972, though the Radio Times still appeared to suggest it was entirely black and white for some time afterwards.


Lime Grove E, where Nationwide and Grandstand were produced, was colourised in 1970, according to http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm#colour
MA
Matt_1979
Thanks for the link - it is really interesting to read TV studios' history and when they went to colour.
DE
deejay
It's an absolutely excellent site that. How did colourisation affect OBs? Presumably it all required new OB Vans and links vehicles? Did there need to be new equipment at receive/transmit stations too?
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Some information about how the distribution and OB contribution circuit arrangement at Sutton Coldfield were modified for BBC2 and colour, written by Ray Cooper who was an engineer there at the time, on the equally excellent MB21 site:

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/features/coldfield/17.shtml
NG
noggin Founding member
deejay posted:
It's an absolutely excellent site that. How did colourisation affect OBs? Presumably it all required new OB Vans and links vehicles? Did there need to be new equipment at receive/transmit stations too?


Not sure - but I suspect so. With B&W circuits you hadn't got colour subcarrier to worry about (so HF performance was less of an issue) and differential phase etc. would have been less of an issue as well (whereas with colour, phase changes of the subcarrier would cause saturation changes in minor degrees in a PAL-D delay line decoder, or Hanover bars in a PAL-S simple PAL decoder)
TT
Tumble Tower
noggin posted:
BBC One was originally black and white 405 line VHF, and as the PAL colour system we chose for the UK was for 625 broadcasting, BBC One wasn't able to switch until it launched on UHF (along with ITV) in 625. BBC One couldn't show colour when it was 405 only, and it took quite a while to convert the existing 405 or 405/625 switchable black and white studios to colour.

On those grounds, how did the BBC show the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest in the UK? It was the first ever ESC to be broadcast in colour. The only way they could broadcast it in colour at the time was on BBC2. However BBC2 coverage was limited at the time, therefore to ensure everyone could see it, it would need to be on BBC1. Did the BBC simulcast it on both BBC2 (for colour broadcasting), and on BBC1 (for the benefit of viewers unable to get BBC2 at all)?
RJ
RJG
It was probably simulcast....BBC 2 also, if I'm not mistaken, simulcast at least one FA Cup Final, because BBC 1 was black-and-white only. The same may well have applied to Test Match cricket and Wimbledon tennis.
MA
Markymark
RJG posted:
It was probably simulcast....BBC 2 also, if I'm not mistaken, simulcast at least one FA Cup Final, because BBC 1 was black-and-white only. The same may well have applied to Test Match cricket and Wimbledon tennis.


Much of the Apollo 11 moonshot coverage (July 69) was simulcast on BBC 1 and 2, for just that reason. Although of course the actual pictures from the moon itself were b/w ! Colour images came with the later moon shots 1970 onwards.
TV
TVArchive Founding member
Tumble Tower posted:
noggin posted:
BBC One was originally black and white 405 line VHF, and as the PAL colour system we chose for the UK was for 625 broadcasting, BBC One wasn't able to switch until it launched on UHF (along with ITV) in 625. BBC One couldn't show colour when it was 405 only, and it took quite a while to convert the existing 405 or 405/625 switchable black and white studios to colour.

On those grounds, how did the BBC show the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest in the UK? It was the first ever ESC to be broadcast in colour. The only way they could broadcast it in colour at the time was on BBC2. However BBC2 coverage was limited at the time, therefore to ensure everyone could see it, it would need to be on BBC1. Did the BBC simulcast it on both BBC2 (for colour broadcasting), and on BBC1 (for the benefit of viewers unable to get BBC2 at all)?


Shown on BBC1 live, repeated on BBC2 in colour the following Sunday afternoon.
SW
Steve Williams
RJG posted:
It was probably simulcast....BBC 2 also, if I'm not mistaken, simulcast at least one FA Cup Final, because BBC 1 was black-and-white only. The same may well have applied to Test Match cricket and Wimbledon tennis.


Yes, both the 1968 and 1969 Cup Finals were simulcast, and there was also colour coverage of the 1968 Olympics, with BBC2 getting its own colour shows and its own presenter in David Vine. And of course Magical Mystery Tour premiered on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967 and was repeated in colour on BBC2 a week later. There were actually a few football matches that were shown on BBC2 alone - I think the 1967 Charity Shield is one of them, the first colour football match on the Beeb - which must have been annoying if BBC2 wasn't in your area yet or you'd yet to upgrade to 625.

Tyne Tees only had one colour OB van for ages, well into the mid-seventies, so if it was needed for anything else on a Saturday, they couldn't cover any local football and had to show The Big Match.

Newer posts