O/T: Very Early BBC Colour VT

[Mark Dragicevic]

Hi All
Whilst browsing through the sports channels on Sky the other night, I happened across ESPN Classic, who were showing the Barbarians vs the All Blacks from December 1967. I was astonished to see this on colour VT. Are there many earlier colour VTs existing? I am guessing this was shown on BBC2 during their colour experiments.

Keep the faith
Mark

[Dave Andrews]

If it was December 1967 then that was about six months after the scheduled colour TV service started on BBC2. (Selected programmes only, but sport OB was quite common).

BBC1 was later (68 or 69 ?) and ITV about a year after that.

[Peter Bradford]

daveandrews said:

If it was December 1967 then that was about six months after the scheduled colour TV service started on BBC2. (Selected programmes only, but sport OB was quite common).

BBC1 was later (68 or 69 ?) and ITV about a year after that.

BBC1 and ITV both officially started their respective colour tv services on the same day - 15th November 1969. However, both services put out some 'trial' programmes in the months and weeks beforehand.

[Andrew Martin]

Mark said:

Hi All
Whilst browsing through the sports channels on Sky the other night, I happened across ESPN Classic, who were showing the Barbarians vs the All Blacks from December 1967. I was astonished to see this on colour VT. Are there many earlier colour VTs existing? I am guessing this was shown on BBC2 during their colour experiments.

Keep the faith
Mark

I think the earliest BBC colour VT still existing is the men's final from Wimbledon 1967. There are a couple of others from 1967, including episode 3 of "Vanity Fair" (all 5 episodes exist in colour but 1-2 and 4-5 are edited NTSC, ep.3 is the original version with outtakes on the end! The last 10 minutes of ep.1 also exist in PAL on the end of a Blue Peter tape). There are a few from 1968 and 1969 as well, though of course mostly BBC2 (though the 1968 Sherlock Holmes series was shown on BBC1 in b/w, it was made in colour and 6 episodes survive).

[W Olding]

andrewmartin said:

Mark said:

Hi All
Whilst browsing through the sports channels on Sky the other night, I happened across ESPN Classic, who were showing the Barbarians vs the All Blacks from December 1967. I was astonished to see this on colour VT. Are there many earlier colour VTs existing? I am guessing this was shown on BBC2 during their colour experiments.

Keep the faith
Mark

I think the earliest BBC colour VT still existing is the men's final from Wimbledon 1967. There are a couple of others from 1967, including episode 3 of "Vanity Fair" (all 5 episodes exist in colour but 1-2 and 4-5 are edited NTSC, ep.3 is the original version with outtakes on the end! The last 10 minutes of ep.1 also exist in PAL on the end of a Blue Peter tape). There are a few from 1968 and 1969 as well, though of course mostly BBC2 (though the 1968 Sherlock Holmes series was shown on BBC1 in b/w, it was made in colour and 6 episodes survive).

"(though the 1968 Sherlock Holmes series was shown on BBC1 in b/w, it was made in colour and 6 episodes survive"

Would love to see this/that... Only a shame, it'll never happen...

[hartley967]

ted said:

[Would love to see this/that... Only a shame, it'll never happen...

You can!

At least two of the episodes of the Peter Cushing series ncluding The Hound Of The Baskervilles were released on DVD a while ago.



.

[Simon Winters]

The Rediffusion London play called 'The Human Voice' has been released in the USA on DVD. This is on colour videotape and was made in 1967 I believe. The DVD turns up on Ebay USA from time to time.

Unfortunately, the colour Rediffusion ident created in 1967 is not on the dvd though. I've got a Rediffusion 'house magazine' from 1967 which features their new colour vt ident, which was blue and white.

Does this ident still exist on videotape? I've never seen an original recording of it anywhere. The BFI must have it somewhere.

Incidentally, there is a chance to see the ABC Weekend TV colour ident on ITV1 shortly - they are showing 'Quarermass and the Pit' overnight, and there is a scene in a pub with some old guys watching a colour tv set. The programme is interrupted by an ABC invision announcer followed by the ABC triangle on-screen in colour.

[Simon Winters]

Excuse my spelling - that should be 'Quatermass and the Pit'.

[Andrew Martin]

hartley967 said:

ted said:

[Would love to see this/that... Only a shame, it'll never happen...

You can!

At least two of the episodes of the Peter Cushing series ncluding The Hound Of The Baskervilles were released on DVD a while ago.

I think all 6 are available on DVD aren't they?

[simonhench]

Also available on DVD is the 1969 BBC1 production of Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband', directed by Rudolph Cartier.

[Matthew Brannigan]

It’s a shame there aren’t more examples – it’s wonderful to see 60’s TV in sparkling colour PAL VT.

[hartley967]

Some of the early 'play of the week' and 'love story' like

uk.imdb.com/title/tt0065115/

were made in PAL colour

whether they still exist or not is another matter.

The defunct company Rediffusion was happy to go ahead with an NTSC system, (which gave them access to N. America) hence many of their color productions like

uk.imdb.com/title/tt0208171/

are in NTSC color

[Stuart Douglas]

andrewmartin said:

hartley967 said:

You can!

At least two of the episodes of the Peter Cushing series ncluding The Hound Of The Baskervilles were released on DVD a while ago.

I think all 6 are available on DVD aren't they?

They are indeed - tinyurl.com/2d9lze

Stuart

[Deleted]

simonw said:

The Rediffusion London play called 'The Human Voice' has been released in the USA on DVD. This is on colour videotape and was made in 1967 I believe. The DVD turns up on Ebay USA from time to time.

Unfortunately, the colour Rediffusion ident created in 1967 is not on the dvd though. I've got a Rediffusion 'house magazine' from 1967 which features their new colour vt ident, which was blue and white.

Does this ident still exist on videotape? I've never seen an original recording of it anywhere. The BFI must have it somewhere.

Incidentally, there is a chance to see the ABC Weekend TV colour ident on ITV1 shortly - they are showing 'Quarermass and the Pit' overnight, and there is a scene in a pub with some old guys watching a colour tv set. The programme is interrupted by an ABC invision announcer followed by the ABC triangle on-screen in colour.

I wonder whether that colour Rediffusion ident exists on a programme too! I bought The Human Voice myself when on DVD. I don´t know if it still is available though.

Regarding ABC ident in Q & The Pit, is it a real colour ident they planned to use had they retained their franchise or is it mocked up for the purposes of the film?

[hartley967]

laurencepiper said:

I wonder whether that colour Rediffusion ident exists on a programme too! I bought The Human Voice myself when on DVD. I don´t know if it still is available though.

Yes there were two versions of the Rediffusion colour ident , IIRC

They both had the same layout, (as monochrome ver. but without the ribbon) but the colouring was different.

One was quite garish colour wise with reds and stuff (the groovy version).
The other (the conservative version)was the more familiar blue background and yellow star.

The conservative version was thought have been used mute on the 66/67 'Star Performance' series which included - The Human Voice/Dare I weep Dare I mourn/Dial M for Murder/Laura/ The Crucible/A hatful of rain.
Interesting to know what happened to the masters of these, as I believe The Human Voice going around on DVD is the American dub?.



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