Colour Strike

[paddywack14]

Is it true that that there was a colour strike at ITV and Episodes of Coronation Street and Crossroads were effected?

[Deleted]

Yes. ITV colour technicians went on strike over a dispute on pay between Novermber 1970 and January 1971 (IIRC).

ITV went back to broadcasting in b/w during this period, and ITV shows in production during this period were made into b/w, such as Bless This House, Upstairs, Downstairs, Hadleigh, The Benny Hill Show, Family at War, Public Eye, Timeslip, Doctor at Large, etc., etc., as well as Corrie and Crossroads.

[Nosmo King]

Indeed all videotaped studio shows across the ITV companies were affected by this dispute. So quite a few famous and familiar shows have a block of b/w installments amidst the colour ones for this reason.

Anything shot completely on film (possibly only some ITC programming? ... were London Weekend's "Catweazel" or "Black Beauty" up and running then?) at the time would not have been affected.

[Stephen Doran]

never got colour tv till 1973,but i do recall budgie and spyders web in b&w.

[John G]

The dispute was actually caused by sound technicians and lasted between November 1970 and February 1971 IIRC. So it meant that all programmes transmitted up the summer of 1971 probably had at least a few B/W episodes?

Another eccentricity of the strike was the fact that it did not affect film technicians so there are some Coronation St episodes from that era which are B/W in the studio but as they go outside it goes into colour.

I don't think Spyders Web was affected at all ? , although much of it now survives only in B/W


The following were definitely affected.

Upstairs downstairs
Timeslip
Dr at large
Carry on Christmas
On the buses
Please sir
Bless this House
Budgie
Crossroads
Coronation st
Hine
Mind of Mr JG reader
The trouble with you Lilian
The misfit
The Shari Lewis show
Six dates with Barker
Elephants eggs in a rhubarb tree
Oregami
Brights boffins
Hadleigh
Family at War
The Dickie Henderson Show

perhaps this is an indicator of the incredible amount of production that was going on in three months?

[PHNEILL]

My understanding is that even programmes shot on film would have shot in monochrome during the colour stike if the film was being shot by the film sections of ITV companies. ITC was a separate wholly owned subsidiary of ATV which had separate agreements with the unions and was not affected by the colour strike. It continued to film in colour at film studios (rather than TV studios) and on location.

[Westy 2]

Would the ITC colour film series been transmitted in B&W during the strike period anyway?

I'm assuming nothing on ITV was transmitted in colour during this period, & the B & W recordings would've 'hung over' to be transmitted as & when.

I'm sure I've read in various episode guides that colour & B&W material was mixed on transmission? (One week colour, one week B&W etc!)

(From memory, reading the BBC comedy guide book, ISTR, the untransmitted ABC episodes of 'Never Mind The Quality' were transmitted at this point, I guess 'Thames-ised' by then !)

[PHNEILL]

Yes ITV transmiitted everything in monochrome during the strike- even programmes made in colour.

[WilliamM]

how long did ths last ie when was the last b/w program made during this period shown.

[Matthew]

Did the Colour Strike have any affect on any of the ITV regions which hadn't started broadcasting in colour- ie were still only broadcasting in 405-line B/W, were they stockpiling colour programmes for when they started broadcasting colour, or to sell abroad or to the network?

Did ITN stop shooting news reports on colour film and go back to using B/W during the Colour Strike?

[williamM]

don't know the first part, but the colour film would be unafected just the video was B/W

[Lance]

update of shows affected

Upstairs downstairs
Timeslip
Dr at large
Carry on Christmas
On the buses
Please sir
Bless this House
Crossroads
Coronation st
Brights boffins
Hadleigh
Family at War
The Dickie Henderson Show
freud on food
rule rules rules

approx proportion of colour episodes in series
Budgie 9/13
Hine 7/13
Mind of Mr JG reader 2/16
The trouble with you Lilian 2/6
The misfit 8/13
The Shari Lewis and
Lamb chop show 0/6
Six dates with Barker 5/6
Elephants eggs in a rhubarb tree 1/6
Origami 100/120
Shadows of fear 10/11

[Laurence Piper]

Public Eye also had several of it's 1971 series in b/w only too.

[Lance]

public eye-good thinking , if everybody keeps adding/correcting bits we may get something accurate in the end ,

which was probably the intention of the original poster?

public eye 9/13

[bryanL]

Shows being recorded during the strike were recorded in black and white. Transmissions had the PAL colour burst removed, but the colour information was still in the pictures, and some PAL decoders did not need the burst to lock-up to the sub-carrier so it is possible there may be colour recordings of the transmissions. If archived, the originals will be in colour, obviously.
Upstairs Downstairs episodes were later re-recorded in the studios when it was realised there was a huge sales market.

And it was the studio colour engineers who struck, not sound! Even today, sound haven't managed a coloured boom shadow.