Parents/Grandparents' Memories of how TV & Radio used to be
Dec 12, 2021 15:10:13 GMT
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Post by markboulton on Dec 12, 2021 15:10:13 GMT
I wondered if anyone here NOT of a "certain age" relied upon various recollections of elder family members as they grew up to work out what TV and radio was like in the decade or so before they were born? And then spent years on internet forums getting the facts straight!
I thought I'd share some of the things I was told growing up which gave me a slightly wonky view of 1960s broadcasting until I started to read up for myself later in life:
1. "That's how TV looked back then."
When I used to ask why repeats of programmes from the 1960s were always on film, this is what I was told. In other words, that everything back then was made on film. I asked what about live programmes? Don't think I ever used to get an answer to that, they just thought I was being awkward.
2. "We couldn't get BBC2 around here until just after you were born" (which was 1973).
I think living in the Midlands and in sight of Sutton Coldfield, BBC2 reception would have been there quite some time and not long after the channel started. However some older people in the area still believed BBC2 wasn't available in the area yet, and I came to realise why eventually... They (as did we until 1976) were still watching TV on a VHF-only 405-line set. However before then my parents and I had quite clearly seen BBC2 on my grandparents' dual standard B/W HMV set which they had all the way up until 1983. Another curio about that set was that the Teletext data stream could be seen scanned into the top of the picture tube, actually lighting up the black surround.
3. "I remember one day when the cube toppled over"
Again related to BBC2 (I think) talking about the 1979 ident and asking how did they do that. I could work out it wasn't film, but I couldn't understand how a seemingly "live" image of a design could change itself as if by magic. That's when my mum mentioned that once the cube toppled over, and at that time I had no idea what relevance any kind of cube had. Years later I find out BBC2's older ident used a rotating cube. So was that a real recollection?
4. "I remember when ATV's symbol was three diamonds on top of each other"/"ABC and ATV were the same thing"
I was collecting records even in the 80s and I used to see mention of records "based on the ABC TV series". I would ask who ABC were and my uncle and dad told me ABC was ATV and that in the 60s their symbol was three diamonds (they were thinking of the ITC logo). When I asked about the triangular logo seen on records mentioning ABC, they said they didn't remember that one.
5. "It's one film on top of another."
I remember vividly my mum saying this several times when I asked how one thing on TV magically appeared on top of something else. What we now know as good old CSO or Chromakey. But back then I had visions of engineers carefully laying out long strips of film on a table and stacking them together and trying to feed them both into "the projector" at once. Again, I didn't buy this explanation because there would be no film scratches at all. Which leads me to...
6. "The projector"
Not just my family but, I think, the BBC's venerable David Miles would allude to films being put into "the projector", leading me to believe films were shown on the TV by pointing a TV camera at a big projection screen with studio staff all sitting and watching in seating in between. Compounded by a strip in The Beano around the time (I think was a Minnie The Minx story) in which this exact arrangement was shown whilst the studio staff had a Christmas party whilst watching the film.
Any memories of a similar vein from anyone?
One thing my uncle got right though... He used to tell me in the days of black and white, the testcard was like the colour one but without the picture of the girl in the middle. I asked what was in the circle instead, and he said "oh, just some patterns and lines".
I thought I'd share some of the things I was told growing up which gave me a slightly wonky view of 1960s broadcasting until I started to read up for myself later in life:
1. "That's how TV looked back then."
When I used to ask why repeats of programmes from the 1960s were always on film, this is what I was told. In other words, that everything back then was made on film. I asked what about live programmes? Don't think I ever used to get an answer to that, they just thought I was being awkward.
2. "We couldn't get BBC2 around here until just after you were born" (which was 1973).
I think living in the Midlands and in sight of Sutton Coldfield, BBC2 reception would have been there quite some time and not long after the channel started. However some older people in the area still believed BBC2 wasn't available in the area yet, and I came to realise why eventually... They (as did we until 1976) were still watching TV on a VHF-only 405-line set. However before then my parents and I had quite clearly seen BBC2 on my grandparents' dual standard B/W HMV set which they had all the way up until 1983. Another curio about that set was that the Teletext data stream could be seen scanned into the top of the picture tube, actually lighting up the black surround.
3. "I remember one day when the cube toppled over"
Again related to BBC2 (I think) talking about the 1979 ident and asking how did they do that. I could work out it wasn't film, but I couldn't understand how a seemingly "live" image of a design could change itself as if by magic. That's when my mum mentioned that once the cube toppled over, and at that time I had no idea what relevance any kind of cube had. Years later I find out BBC2's older ident used a rotating cube. So was that a real recollection?
4. "I remember when ATV's symbol was three diamonds on top of each other"/"ABC and ATV were the same thing"
I was collecting records even in the 80s and I used to see mention of records "based on the ABC TV series". I would ask who ABC were and my uncle and dad told me ABC was ATV and that in the 60s their symbol was three diamonds (they were thinking of the ITC logo). When I asked about the triangular logo seen on records mentioning ABC, they said they didn't remember that one.
5. "It's one film on top of another."
I remember vividly my mum saying this several times when I asked how one thing on TV magically appeared on top of something else. What we now know as good old CSO or Chromakey. But back then I had visions of engineers carefully laying out long strips of film on a table and stacking them together and trying to feed them both into "the projector" at once. Again, I didn't buy this explanation because there would be no film scratches at all. Which leads me to...
6. "The projector"
Not just my family but, I think, the BBC's venerable David Miles would allude to films being put into "the projector", leading me to believe films were shown on the TV by pointing a TV camera at a big projection screen with studio staff all sitting and watching in seating in between. Compounded by a strip in The Beano around the time (I think was a Minnie The Minx story) in which this exact arrangement was shown whilst the studio staff had a Christmas party whilst watching the film.
Any memories of a similar vein from anyone?
One thing my uncle got right though... He used to tell me in the days of black and white, the testcard was like the colour one but without the picture of the girl in the middle. I asked what was in the circle instead, and he said "oh, just some patterns and lines".
