General Chat

Dear All

Hello

It was revealed this week that more than 7,000 people still watch TV in black and white. London has the most TV licences for these sets.

In 1967, BBC2 was the first channel to regularly broadcast in colour, with the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

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Television and radio technology historian Jeffrey Borinsky said collectors like him still have numerous black and white TVs.

"Who wants all this new-fangled 4K Ultra HD, satellite dishes or a screen that's bigger than your room when you can have glorious black and white TV?" he asked.

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My family watched TV on a small black and white set on a stand. Problems occurred with the vertical hold, an extra indoor aerial was required.

Later on, in my teens, we had the joy of buying our first colour TV. Magical.

Video recorders came and were exchanged by DVD players.

By 2012, the analogue signal was turned off, so a digital TV or a digital receptor on top of the existing TV was needed.

Naturally, the prices for televisions and equipment soared.

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Take gentle care
Love Elizabeth, EOS
xx

My Dad wasn't too keen on getting a colour set (perhaps because he was colour blind!) but next door had one, they always had the 'latest' stuff so I used to watch it when Mum babysat for them. Later on, I used to babysit alone, we had colour by then but they had upgraded to a bigger TV!

We always had a Tv
and Upgraded to colour in about 1970
maybe just before :-D

When I was little Tv didn't start till tea time and went off about 12 :-(

My Dad bought (more likely rented) our first TV not long after I was born so that they could watch the Queen's Coronation in 1953. My parents and brother together with some neighbours were huddled around the black & white TV which had something like a 12"screen. :-)

I can remember Watch with Mother with Picture Book, Andy Pandy, The Flowertop Men, Rag, Tag & Bobtail & The Woodentops.....aww happy times :-D.

I can also remember when President Kennedy died in 1963 the screen having a white silhouette of his face on a black background. :-(

Then in 1969 watching the Apollo 11 Mission and the first moonwalk :-0

I watched the coronation on my aunt and uncle's TV, so did most of their neighbours :-D.

Dad bought our first set January 1954, it was to help educate us (I have a sister) as well as entertain. I remember watching Watch with Mother early afternoon. Wasn't overstruck with Monday and Tuesday's offerings of Picture Book and Andy Pandy but loved Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag and Bobtail and the Woodentops (didn't Spot do well children ;-))

We had a border collie who muttered just like Spot :-D

Loved the Sunday Classic Serial on Sunday teatimes. We were allowed to stay up on Wednesday evenings as it was educational - David Attenborough, Hans and Lotte Hass, Armond and Michaela Denis and Sir Mortimer Wheeler (Greece and Rome) come to mind.

Not much choice but at least I found things to watch then - spend most of my time looking through hundreds of programmes on offer then listening to radio now :-S

Bought our first colour TV 1973 when we returned to UK, our first TV as a married couple.

It seems strange now to think that renting a TV was quite common and more popular than ownership for most people.
A summer holiday job was as cashier in a rental shop and at the end of the day I could always tell which 10 shilling note had been paid in by the coal merchant or the fishmonger.

I think we got our first rental TV about mid 1950s, but after the Coronation.
Family viewing included What's My Line and I enjoyed the Sunday teatime serial, particularly The Silver Sword.

I can't remember much about the characters, but I remember watching The Grove Family too, especially old-looking Granny Groves.

My Parents favourite light entertainment show was The Black & White Minstrels Show....a definate no no now :-0 :-0

Gwyn have a picture in my mind re The Silver Sword - a young Melvyn Hayes in short trousers sat on bare/damaged stairs. Great serial, made you realise how they suffered during WW2.

My parents rented our first one from Rediffusion when I was about 12 years.
Remember the first fuzzy live trans Atlantic broadcasts ?

I inherited my 'to be' father in laws wonderful black and white TV when he died.
It was huge for the time, and in a lovely wooden cabinet, with slatted doors, that slid into the cabinet..

You used to have to wait for the TV to ‘warm up’ before you could watch anything. I do remember learning to do that for Watch with Mother.

My parents were very much against HP or rental. On that basis, they probably saved up to buy it outright.

David we too rented from Redifusion and on a dial in the window where the socket was, you could also listen to R 1-4. later we rented a video recorder altho hardly used it and we sent it back after a few months.

At first tho back in the mid 60s our black and white only had BBC1 and BBC2 no ITV until much later on.

We eventually got colour I think in 1970/1 just in time for a footie cup final,cant remember who but it was a novelty.

I had a portable B & W my dad bought me when I was 16.It meant I had some freedom to watch it in my bedroom.

When we only had 1 TV then, it was my mum who really decided on what we watched.

And nowadays I have a tv with about 100 channels ,most of which I never look at. I have a small 24 inch tv not a huge 50 inch one. Was all I could afford when I moved last year, but tbh you need a huge lounge for a tv of that size and im not sure if I would like one that big.

Changed days!

Florence in the hebrides

Dear All

Hello

All great posts here.. thank you for your replies. :-)

We still have a VHS recorder. It just about works!

I have an enormous collection of VHS tapes, many of events
recorded over the last 25 years.

Many others are films bought from HMV when they had their "big sales" on.

Happy viewing all.

Take gentle care
Love Elizabeth, EOS
xx

My stepfather was Radio Ham, and he built our first TV in 1948, I can remember watching the pantomime on ice and the screen being quite fuzzy, (snow?!!) I can remember childrens programmes starting about 4pm - 6, then there was nothing till adult programmes started at 7pm. OH and I rented a TV when we were first married in 1964, finally having colour in about 1973!

The black and white tv 405 line standard was terrible.
By the mid 1960s it was replaced with UHF 625 lines which was a massive improvement and allowed the introduction of color in 1968.
https://www.transdiffusion.org/2017/04/24/the-plain-mans-guide-to-the-changeover-to-625-line-tv

My great aunt in London had a TV before the ww2. I watched the coronation on it though I remember the set well not the ceremonies sad to say.

Going backwards and forwards to France the French SECAM system was much sharper than PAL 625. OTOH the Brits got color much sooner.

I think that the best years of TV were mostly in monochrome for the majority. There was a vitality to programs which is very rarely there any more. Exceptions (now) stuff such as Peaky Blinders and the Handmaid's Tale.

Unfortunately far too much stuff is "lost" hidden in archives ( eg BFI is hiding "Roads to Freedom" ) or wantonly destroyed ( "the Silver Sword"). Lots of our cultural heritage is far too difficult to access eg Wednesday Play, Z Cars, Hancock ,,,,,

The Silver Sword was aired as a 3 part series on R4 a few years ago but has now disappeared from the BBC Archive.

Relative to the cost of living TVs are a heck of a lot cheaper than 50 years ago. I just wish it was not so difficult to find something watchable at a time that suits. The current Sky & Virgin 6 channel recorders make it much easier to escape from network tyranny.

The first TV we had and programme I saw was-------Quatermass,,,,,,,,,it scared the living daylights out of me.a 12 inch screen with horizontal & V hold. which always seemed to need fiddling with......and a X ariel

then we progressed to 3 channels 20inch , then to colour 3 channels.22 inch......the colour was awful each time a channel change it needed adjusting to for the colour.....

Yes I remember Quatermass, watching it in terror with my Granny!

Remember the Bride of Frankenstein and Dr Who with the Darleks all in B & W but still scary! Christopher Lee and Peter Cushion in Sat nite horrow films.



They don't make them like they use to...lol

Florence in the hebrides

I remember we had to draw the cutains in summer or you coulnt see the picture...….and often at night with the light off as the picture was better,,,,,,the big thick screen seemed a green colour when switched off...….mum hated it because of the dust it attracted.....""

".andy pandys coming to play,la la la la

.hello teddy have you been playing with looby lou……that's nice teddy, :-D :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D