Noel's House Party

Wasn't a lot of that to do with acquired sports coverage and host broadcaster feeds (notably F1 IIRC) often having graphics that were 4:3 safe but not 14:9 safe?

I think all Sports graphics were 4:3 safe at that time regardless of the source. BBC Sport was 4:3 on analogue for a very long while after everything else was 16:9.

I suspect it may have had something to do with promoting digital - ie "when you go digital you'll get more picture". Which is fine for things like football and rugby, but not so much snooker unless you're into looking at the floor around the table and shiny shoes.

Euro 2004 apparently was 4:3, and the BBC/ITV pillarboxed it so you had the studio stuff 16:9 and the matches 4:3 with pretty colours down the sides of the picture. May not have been the greatest advert for digital TV but there you go.

I'm assuming they already had begun 16:9 production, because the evening was in March 1998 and they started showing programmes in 14:9 on analogue in September. Indeed, the awful 1997 sitcom Keeping Mum, as mentioned in the Radio Times Comedy Guide, was produced in widescreen, although it was never shown in that format because it ended before digital TV began, and was shown in 14:9 on analogue. I assume the idea for the expriment was that they'd shown prestige drama and comedy in that format, and the viewer more or less accepted that because it looked quite classy, but not live shows and light entertainment, so they had no idea how the public would take to that.

They must have been producing most stuff in that format for a bit because I remember lots of widescreen shows appearing on telly in September 1998 to coincide with the launch of digital, and shows like Watchdog, HIGNFY and Buzzcocks going widescreen when they returned for their new series.

Of course, it took a while for all shows to go widescreen, and I think the last regular mainstream show to go widescreen was Top of the Pops, which seems remarkable given how it was supposed to be at the cutting edge, but it didn't change until October 2001, I think because it was made using ancient facilities in Elstree. I guess the fact much of it was exported might have been an issue too.



The one sports programme that wasn't 4:3 on analogue was the first season of MOTD2 in 2004/05, which was shown in 16:9 on analogue, I remember initially the graphics certainly weren't 4:3 safe either. I remember it being said it was an editorial decision by BBC Sport to differentiate it from normal Match of the Day, although it seemed a rather pointless way to do it. The following season it was the same as all the other programmes.

I think there was a general feel that audiences didn't like watching sport in letterbox, hence the continued use of 4:3. Certainly when I first got digital telly, over a decade ago now, I didn't have a widescreen set for a few years but while I was happy to watch most shows in 14:9, I always switched the box to 4:3 for football because I just didn't like watching it in letterbox.

Sport always worked 4:3 safe and 16:9 sport was shown 4:3 Centre Cut Out on analogue (16F16C). Most other 16:9 stuff was 14:9 safe and shown 14:9 letterboxed on analogue (16F16B). Only feature films (ISTR) were shown 16:9 digital/16:9 letterboxed on analogue (16F16A).

I think the last regular 4:3 commission was Parkinson. The production team and apparently Michael Parkinson himself, felt that interview programmes were not best suited to widescreen. There may be something in that. Classic shot sizes (Mid Shot MS, Medium Close Up MCU etc) were all originally described when tv was all 4:3. Parkinson used to make great use of classic MCU and even CU (Close Up) shot sizes, particularly on probing interviews. When shooting widescreen there's a lot of wasted screen space on a mid shot, and it can feel less intense than a 4:3 mid shot.

Interestingly, when ITV brought Parkinson back some years after the last BBC series, with many of the same production team, it was widescreen.

We've gone well off on a tangent here by now but I seem to remember Coronation Street was the last major programme to go widescreen, as it was still 4:3 as late as I think either 2002 or 2003.

Big Brother was later than that.

I think ITV News were the last major programme to go widescreen, in December 2007(!). In fact I remember for a few years beforehand, they decided to crop the output to 14:9 on all news programmes, there was no way to watch it natively 4:3 on analogue or digital IIRC

I think the point of it was to see if they'd get as many complaints with 14:9 as they had already received when movies had been shown letterboxes (which generated significant numbers of complaints on a regular basis)

The reason for doing it before 16:9 production had really kicked in was to set some ground rules for how 16:9 production would be done - do you shoot and protect for 4:3, 14:9 or 16:9? Can you run a fixed 4:3, 14:9 or 16:9 letterbox for 4:3 analogue outlets, or do you need dynamic aspect ratio conversion etc.

This was an experiment to measure public response - and it made sense to do it in advance of widespread 16:9 production - as it gave an insight into the audience reaction to widescreen content viewed on 4:3 displays.

Ironically I think at least one Noel's House Party had been made in HD by then (using the experimental 1250/50 standard - and I think a Top of the Pops was shot that way too). The HD cameras were used alongside SD, not instead of them.



Yes - for some reason sport viewers disproportionately complained about 'their TV not being filled with picture' - and because sport was usually shot and protected for 4:3 (very easy with a camera 1 sport like football or rugby where the action is in the centre of the frame for much of the time) it made sense to send a 4:3 centre-cut type AFD to fill 4:3 displays with picture. The same AFDs were sent on DTT (to trigger AFD friendly set top boxes) and used to trigger the 4:3 centre-cut, 14:9 letterbox and 16:9 letterbox options for the ARCs that fed the analogue 4:3 network feeds.

Sky did the reverse on their Sky Sports HD channels and unconverted 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD by stretching, not pillar boxing, for the same reason...

Series 2 of Look Around You was 4:3, but that was done for parody reasons.

Thanks for all that, noggin - really interesting and all makes complete sense. Do you know why there was a deep-letterbox flag on Freeview for sport programming at this time (when viewed on a 4:3 set)? I distinctly remember it being the case. Presumably sports viewers with Freeview would be as unhappy as those on analogue that their TV was 'not filled with picture'?!

Of course, the early-mid 00s was haphazard for widescreen sport production. I think the 2004 Olympics BBC programme was 4:3 completely, even the studio stuff, as the main OBS feed was 4:3 (wasn't there a separate, but lesser 16:9 feed?) - and then you had idiots on forums saying "it's in 4:3 on Freeview (because it was flagged correctly) but in 16:9 on analogue (because their TV was stretching the picture".

F1 didn't go widescreen till 2007 - probably the final major production to do so? Heck, many productions were moving over to HD by that point...

Janaury 2002 actually. Emmerdale switched at the same time.