Colourstrike episodes & colour film inserts/OB etc

[Matthew]

I was wondering if the original 2inch master tapes of any TV programmes affected by the ITV Colour Strike of 1970/1971 were partially in colour- were any film inserts printed onto colour stock and telecined in colour?

If the 2inch masters have recently been transferred to digital videotape would it have been discovered if they had intermittant colour footage (would the 2inch player be manually switched to only show b/w if the beginning of the recording was in b/w) and would it have been transferred in colour?

Were any programme episodes part of the way through studio recording in colour when the strike hit, then completed in black and white?

Alternatively did the strike end part-of-the-way through recording any programmes resulting in an episode beginning in b/w but ending in colour?

Did the Colour Strike affect programmes shot using OB video instead of film?

[dubs honest]

I assume you mean transferring obstensively 625 line tapes to another modern format, then I doubt it.

Colour inserts from VT would have sub-carrier interference which would alert the VT operator that colour elements were being transferred.

I think...

[Brian Fretwell]

I would also suspect that it would depend if the original was recorded on a low-band 2" machine (as per the Goodies episode on the second set) the sub-carrier would have been very low level and might not be noticed. Was the strike only cameramen or also VT operators as they may have banned use of Hig-band recorders?

[PHNEILL]

I do not think there would be colour inserts on video tapes of programmes made during the strike. During the strike the staff would not transmit, telecine or record in colour. The strike was a blanket refusal to work in colour. Thus colour film would have telecined in monochrome for insertion into master tapes of programmes made during the strike.

It is, however, possible that film inserts were made in colour before the strike which were subsequently telecined in monochrome to be inserted into monochrome programmes made during the strike. If the film inserts survive on colour film they could be reinserted in colour. It would be unlikely that many film inserts survive in ITV libraries. The policy would have been only to keep such inserts if they were likely to be useable as stock footage for insertion in other programmes.

[film inserts]

I'd presume that any pre-filmed inserts for programmes would still have been shot using colour film: who knew when the strike would have been settled?

Take a look UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS: the "Sarah leaves" version of episode one uses colour film location footage at the end, while the recorded in b/w proper episode that ends with Sarah leaving, (ep4?), has the same material but in monochrome.

[H Hartley]

The outside scenes were probably recorded months before the strike anyway?