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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 17, 2019 21:19:04 GMT
Last Friday marked 50 years to the day when BBC1 and ITV (Thames, London Weekend, Granada, ATV, Yorkshire) started officially broadcasting in colour. Trawling through the archives I found several examples of programs that still survive which were broadcast during that initial week (15-22 November 1969) these include the following shows; I've detailed the series and episode numbers also for reference.
1) Please Sir - SE2, EP9 (TX: 15/11/69) 2) Monty Python's Flying Circus - SE1, EP5 (TX: 16/11/69) 3) Take Three Girls - SE1, EP1 (TX: 17/11/69) 4) Coronation Street - Episode 928 (TX: 17/11/69) 5) Apollo 12 Coverage (TX: 19/11/69) 6) The Benny Hill Show - Episode 1 (TX: 19/11/69) 7) Softly, Softly: Taskforce - SE1, EP1 (TX: 20/11/69) 8) Dad's Army - SE3, EP11 (TX: 20/11/69) 9) Curry & Chips - Episode 1 (TX: 21/11/69) 10) Parkin's Patch - SE1, EP10 (TX: 22/11/69)
These programs also happen to survive on their native 625 line colour VT format. It's also interesting to note that a number of these shows featured on the list were already recorded in colour prior to official start date. I wonder if there are any other examples of shows that still exist, which were broadcast during that innaugural month leading up to Christmas that year. I'm also interested to find what other shows were already filmed in colour prior to C-DAY, a number spring to mind including 'Doctor in the House', 'Not in Front of the Children', even an episode 'Public Eye' (TX:10/9/69) was filmed in colour as a trial for the new colour equipment.
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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 18, 2019 13:29:24 GMT
There are few more extant listings to add, that aired during the first 'official' week of colour broadcasting on BBC1 and ITV.
1) Frost on Saturday (TX: 15/11/69) 2) The Royal Variety Performance (TX: 16/11/69) 3) This Is Your Life - SE10, EP1 (TX: 19/11/69) 4) Special Branch - SE1, EP10 (TX: 19/11/69) 5) Coronation Street - Episode 929 (TX: 19/11/69)
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Post by Richard Marple on Nov 18, 2019 13:46:00 GMT
One the flip side what was the last prime time show to intentionally be made in black & White? ignoring regional shows (I know Channel didn't switch until 1976) or programmes effected by colour technician strikes.
Coming to mind is the 1970 Carry On Christmas special, which was monochrome but I'm not sure if that was due to a strike.
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Post by Peter Stirling on Nov 18, 2019 15:48:53 GMT
One the flip side what was the last prime time show to intentionally be made in black & White? ignoring regional shows (I know Channel didn't switch until 1976) or programmes effected by colour technician strikes. Coming to mind is the 1970 Carry On Christmas special, which was monochrome but I'm not sure if that was due to a strike. Possibly one was 'The Contenders' a drama series made by Granada which finished in Nov 69. On BBC1 possibly 'Counterstrike' a sci fi drama series. Hadleigh 69 was made with colour cameras but the colour was only switched on eps after the launch date. The colour strike started in mid Nov 70 so yes recordings for the Christmas week would have been affected.
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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 18, 2019 17:01:51 GMT
And another two I forgot to mention, coincidentally it's 50 years to the day when these shows aired:
1) Cribbins - SE1, EP1 (TX: 18/11/69)
2) Hadleigh - SE1, EP10 (TX: 18/11/69)
Both these shows exist in the archive and are available to buy on DVD. It's intersting to note that most of the surviving examples on the list were produced by the ITV companies, who had a better archival policy than the Beeb, which means a number of early Colour shows can still be viewed today.
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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 18, 2019 17:12:13 GMT
It's well known that ITV and BBC1 were already filming and transmitting various programs in colour in the weeks prior to the launch date. Series 3 of 'Dad's Army', Series 2 of 'Please Sir' and the whole of the first series of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' were filmed in colour. Plus even 'Coronation Street' as early as episode 924 (TX: 3/11/69) was recorded in colour as a means of testing out the equipment and set design in the ensuing weeks to C-Day. This particular episode had a curious mixture of interior studio inserts in colour and exterior film inserts in monochrome, something which was repeated after the show resumed colour production for the second time following the end of the ITV Colour Strike in February 1971.
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,854
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Post by RWels on Nov 18, 2019 19:24:04 GMT
It's Marty Feldman actually beat Monty Python to it!
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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 18, 2019 20:10:39 GMT
It was broadcast on BBC2 between 1968-9, which is why it was recorded and transmitted in colour.
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Post by Alan Scott on Nov 18, 2019 21:24:12 GMT
The Big Match from 15/11 & 22/11/69 both exist. The main matches covered by LWT were broadcast in colour but the highlights from some of the other regions were still in black and white.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Nov 19, 2019 9:19:30 GMT
One the flip side what was the last prime time show to intentionally be made in black & White? ignoring regional shows (I know Channel didn't switch until 1976) or programmes effected by colour technician strikes. Coming to mind is the 1970 Carry On Christmas special, which was monochrome but I'm not sure if that was due to a strike. Not sure if it was the last, but The Comic Strip Presents... The Beat Generation was shot in black and white in 1982, screened January 1983. I'm sure that there are other examples. I know that it's not quite what you mean... Paul
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Post by Richard Marple on Nov 19, 2019 13:35:17 GMT
I remember The Comic Strip Presents... Spaghetti Hoops was in black & white for artistic reasons, though it was set in the early 1980s.
Lenny Henry made a one-off show in the mid 1980s where he played a Windrusher made in black & white to he right feel as it was shot like a documentry.
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Post by Mike Goldwater on Nov 19, 2019 23:31:28 GMT
Apart from 'Monty Python', 'Softly, Softly: Taskforce' and 'Dad's Army' where all the colour episodes exist in one form or another, this fails to shield the fact that the lack of survivivng examples of the early colour output on BBC1 is quite stark compared to ITV. Even on these lists alone, most of the surviving examples from the first official week of colour broadcasting come from the ITV regions. A vast quantity of early colour shows made at the Beeb in the latter part of 1969 are either missing a number of episodes or are lost in their entirety which is quite sad in retrospect. I'm curious to why the ITV regions had a better track record in retaining copies of their shows in comparison to the BBC; of the ITV regions which of them had the best archival policy when it came to preserving their programs.
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Post by Kelvin Walker on Nov 24, 2019 16:02:04 GMT
The first programme broadcasted in colour on Thames TV was Once Upon a Time @ 4.20pm on 17.11.1969. Honor Blackman reading Huff Puff (from Clever Polly and The Stupid Wolf) by Catherine Storr...directed by Pamela Lonsdale .... sadly this edition NO LONGER EXISTS.
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