BBC colour television experiments - circa 1959

[JeridanCork]

This must be why Spike from Buffy left the UK.

[BigDon62]

Cheers ! Been looking for a good print of this. Some colour cameras from there made it here for Australia's colour test TX'es I recall.

[tomservo56954]

I understand the first program to be broadcast in colour for the general audience in England was the Beatles' MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, on Boxing Day 1967.

[familyfarrer]

I love this video. The singer, the late Janie Marden is my father's cousin. It's so nice that a few bits of archive of her have survived.

[alexmccormack]

@familyfarrer She certainly had a wonderful voice.

[dansimmons21]

"This, is the BBC." BRING RP BACK! :)

[cinneadboy2]

The innocence and beauty of early colour T.V. A pleasure to watch. Thank you.

[tkoizumi]

Damn... and I've thought back in 50's the world was truly black and white

[tvfilmglamdirector]

I would guess that this was some sort of "show-reel" promotional film rather than actual recording as-it-happened?

Certainly none of the monitors in the shot had real feeds on them, post-production Matt's instead.

Good though and as always with the film stock of the period, gloriously vivid colours.

Thanks for uploading.

[bikerchick4eva]

Sylvester Nevile Watson OBE. Known as Nevile Watson. Thank you for posting this, it means so much to me.

[bikerchick4eva]

My Grandad is in this video. At .39 he is the man on the right. I am so proud to have known him.

[aptsarchive]

@bikerchick4eva How great that you have been able to see your Grandad in this sequence of film. Could you please message me with his name so that I can add it to the description field.

[bikerchick4eva]

@aptsarchive

Sylvester Watson OBE known as Neville Watson.

Many thanks, Fran

[borgduck]

And four years later came Doctor Who.

[bansaraba]

So what was this footage actually meant to be? Part of a newsreel?

[aptsarchive]

Didn't you read the description? As it states "BBC Television had been experimenting with a colour system for a number of years when this film (This Is The BBC) was made in June 1960. It gave an impression of a day in the life of the corporation and colour experiments were featured at the end."

[bansaraba]

@aptsarchive Let me put it another way: am I right to presume this was meant to be screened in cinemas?

[aptsarchive]

The BBC film this sequence is from, This Is The BBC, charts a day in the life of the corporation and was first broadcast on BBC Television in 1960. It did get a small cinema release, but was more significant for preserving for posterity a BBC that was about to disappear for ever, with the arrival of Sir Hugh Carlton-Greene, when he became Director General in 1960.

[bifilm]

how lovely to see this clip again! It was actually the closing sequence of Richard Cawston's documentary 'This is the BBC', made in the early sixties. The only thing that is now missing are the end credits for the whole film.

[aptsarchive]

@bifilm Indeed this clip is from Richard Cawston's documentary. the end credits of the film play over a shot of Alexandra Palace at night. As you are probably aware this was the only section of the film that was in colour, highlighting the "wonder" that colour television would bring to the viewing public.

[bifilm]

@bifilm It was interesting also to see bits of the engineers' control gallery sequence re-used in a BBC-4 tx just a couple of weeks ago (early Dec 2010) on Science programming in television.

[efrem1]

I see that BBC had the RCA TK-41 cameras. Hard to believe that NBC started colorcasting a full 15 years before BBC got off the ground.

[upminsterjohn]

@efrem1

They were not RCA cameras they were made by Marconi's in Chelmsford. The cameras were based on TK41 optics and layout but the mechanics were slightly different and the CCUs were Marconi design.

[borgduck]

@upminsterjohn Marconi's has since closed down in Chelmsford.

[Koshka42]

Hey, that's the song from the end of The Friendly Giant here in Canada!

[WJCairns]

Is that Millicent Martin singing?

[aptsarchive]

I know it's not Millicent Martic singing, but at present research has not revealed who the performer in this experimental broadcast is.

[Cheeseford]

@aptsarchive The singer is Janie Marden. The drummer is Don Lawson.

[movieman95]

The color is pretty vibrant for an experimental broadcast. It looks like Technicolor. Was the footage restored in any way?

[aptsarchive]

The footage wasn't restored in any way, and of course you only see a superimposed image in the monitor screen, not the signal direct from the cameras.

[papermariob]

We had to wait until 1967 for BBC2 to "Go Colour" and 1969 for BBC1.

They bought Lovely EMI-2001 Cameras, And used them right up until 15th July 1991 To record an episode of Eastenders (Although they started "Phasing the out" in some studios as early as 1980) They replaced them with Link 110 and Link 125 Camera at first. These were AWFUL

RIP EMI-2001 Camera 1968-1991 Gone but not forgot.

[aptsarchive]

Many thanks for your comments.

I lament the day the EMI 2001 were removed from service - they were the workforce of the television industry for such a long time. BBC & ITV both went into colour in 1969, but ATV were producing programmes in colour for some years before that date, selling them to other countries in colour, while we were still seeing then in monochrome!

[papermariob]

Thank you. Yes indeed BBC1 & ITV went colour in 1969 (you know your stuff) For some reason BBC 2 went to colour a bit earlier.

Yes it was indeed a VERY sad day the great EMI-2001 Camera was removed from service. The last time they were used was on 15th July 1991. Just think of all the classics these recorded in there many years of service. Dr.Who, Steptoe&son, Dad,s Army etc etc right up to Eastenders. One or Two EMI-2001 Camera still exist. Sadly nothing is forever... CHEERS

[thekennelman]

Hi papermariob. They actually bought the odious Marconi Mk VII for studios before realising they were a pile of cr4p. They then aimed them out to the Spur for News to use while the 2001's came in. The Link 110's weren't actually that bad, and were a deal easier to line up than the four tube 2001's. I think the 125's were the heads and mid-cable packs of the 120 cameras combined and were as you say less than stellar. The thing that killed link was the 130. Pat Turner, the acceptance engineer

[thekennelman]

rejected - I think - 57 of them. Link never recovered from that and I think went into dealership for Grass Valley products.

If you look at old programmes, you can spot the poor old EMI's running out of beam on highlights, smearing on the dark scenes, and looking a lot less sharp than todays modern stuff.

Also having a 101 way cable and connectors that each cost more than my first three cars added together seems bizzare now. It was horrendous getting pictures back from the Blue Peter garden!

[thekennelman]

What is new to me is this was done at Ally Pally, when I understood all the colour experiments were done at Studio H Lime Grove.

H BTW eventually became the TMS (Television Music Studio) where bands would lay down their backing tracks on Tuesdays before appearing on TOTP Wednesday's for TX Thursdays.

[aptsarchive]

On 7 October 1954, the first 'compatible' type of colour television picture was radiated from the medium-power transmitter at Alexandra Palace. The pictures included slides and 16-mm motion pictures.

During the winter of 1955-6 a regular series of transmissions were conducted at Alexandra Palace, with the primary purpose of testing the compatibility of the pictures on a comparatively large sample of domestic receivers.

[aptsarchive]

By the autumn of 1956, Studio A had been equipped with a second experimental colour camera and, a little later, a 35-mm Cintel film scanner was installed to supplement the slide and 16-mm film scanner. With this equipment and with the enthusiastic help of programme staff, an ambitious and comprehensive series of programmes were broadcast and were observed in people's homes on specially developed experimental colour receivers and also on a large number of black-and-white domestic sets.

[aptsarchive]

During the winter of 1957-8 a further series of experimental programmes were broadcast from the studio at Alexandra Palace and was seen by a rather bigger audience on colour receivers than in the previous year. At the conclusion of these tests the studio at Alexandra Palace was dismantled & the cameras installed temporarily in a van which carried out two outside broadcasts. The slide & film-scanning equipment was moved to the Lime Grove Studios where a regular series of transmissions were given

[borgduck]

@aptsarchive Ah, Lime Grove. The scene of legendary 60's Doctor Who classics.  Lime Grove is gone along with many 60'S Doctor Who classics, mostly from Troughtons era at the helm. BBC @*%$!!

[iwtoc65]

@thekennelman You never knew quite when you were on air after closedown for those TXs from Studio 'H' - (I'm talking about circa 1966 now). I think this was because the studio was not routed via NCA2 (it was on 625 lines UHF BBC2 by then) but switched directly by CAR - (I am ready to be corrected on this). I remember often watching at home and seeing the studio hanging about waiting to go on air. Also at the end of the programme the studio was still going to air for some time afterwards.

[papermariob]

100% AGREE. The Marconi MK V11 was a pile of pap. Yorkshire TV still have the first Colour Camera they ever filmed Colour with. It was a Markoni MK V11. However they equiped there new studio with EMI-2001.

[thelyniezian]

That song sounds like it's being murdered...

[thecheesepriest]

Oh look, maybe The X Factor's not so new after all!!

[indianhead66]

RCA TK's were not of the PAL standard! PAL (Phase alternating line) was a brand new 625 line service. TK's were from NTSC. The BBC ended B/W service when it switched to PAL.

[aptsarchive]

Many thanks for your comments. Hope you enjoyed the posting.

[kabogga]

I noticed something very creep at 1:05 .

There appear to be wires coming out of the clock on the wall making it look like the timer for a bomb. Presumably, if they didn't finish the experiment on time, then the bomb would detonate, destroying the studio and taking out the entire rhythm section in the process.

No doubt making the woman's pink dress disintegrate leaving her totally in the buff for all to see. (Well, I can dream, can't I) Lol. :-D

[aptsarchive]

Thanks for your comments, but think you are seeing far more into the "wires coming out of the clock" than is necessary!

[kabogga]

Lol! It was meant as a joke. Look at the second part of my previous comment and see that.

By the way, good upload of a great television clip. ;-) Keep up the good work.

[michaelburling]

I wonder where that enormous string section that we can hear were hidden?!

[aptsarchive]

We do see part of the orchestra in one section of the film!

[toresbe]

I'm guessing the heat from lights in there must have been positively horrible; the light sensitivity on those cameras must have been less than stellar.

I noticed the lady runs off in the middle of the song to have her face repowdered by a makeup lady. I'm not surprised.

[aptsarchive]

The heat in early television studios was awful! The light sensitivity on the experimental colour television cameras was no good. The (black & white) telerecordings of these early colour experiments shows a very dark image with lack of contrast - we have posted one of these on our YouTube channel in several parts!

[thelyniezian]

The folk song in question seems to be poorly jazzed-up.

[Glassia9]

Nice to see the old RCA TK-41A's in action again. They may have been one of the best color cameras made considering the level of technology at that time.

[aptsarchive]

Many thanks for your comments.

A version of the RCA TK-41A's was used by the BBC in their early 405-line NTSC colour camera. It gave reasonable results on the 405-line standard, but the telerecordings of these experiments (albeit in black & white), show a very dark and dense image. It would be fantastic to see the actual images in colour to see what it actually looked like! Photographs of the screen image don't do the system justice!

[darganx]

Katie Boyle singing..

[aptsarchive]

One thing that we are certain about is that this is not Katie Boyle singing.

[OldVideoPro]

The thing that amazes me is I see that huge (RCA?) colour camera, and know the three-ccd HD camcorder on the shelf beside me is better than that by a factor of around 10 AND it has the equivalent of a Quadruplex VTR built in - but again- better by a factor of around 10. Isn't technology wonderful?!

[aptsarchive]

Yes, quite agree - technology is fantastic and has come along way in the last 50 years.

[wrtlpfmpf]

Wait, you cannot edit the tapes of your camcorder. The tracks are to small, and it's to hard to make out those GOPs under the microscope after "developing".

[aptsarchive]

Not sure quite what you mean by this comment. I can't see anybody making reference to editing the tapes of a camcorder - perhaps you could explain.

[wrtlpfmpf]

OldVideoPro mentioned how amazing the progress of technology is and that he can now buy a cheap camcorder for a fraction of the price, and I noted that it's hard to edit it's tapes.

[OldVideoPro]

LOL wrtlpfmpf!

[tiddler111]

not as good as frank spencer's version

[aptsarchive]

I'm not quite sure of the Frank Spencer reference. This piece of film was a serious study of the colour television experiments being conducted, at the end of the 1950's, by the BBC!

[Strawberry7Lynn]

Is this real? Back then, the second hand on a clock used to move in a continous, sweeping movement. That one flicked from second to second, the same as a modern clock.

[aptsarchive]

Yes, this is for real! The BBC Television Service colour experiments continued for a number of years at Alexandra Palace before being switched to Lime Grove studios. Not all clock movements behave in the same way, but I can assure you the view of the clock is genuine - it was in studio A control room and was used for many, many years.

[alijanlondon]

It's the very end of a film called This Is the BBC about 24 hours in the life of the BBC, which was indeed transmitted on 29.06.60 - it was also shown in Cinemas as a supporting feature and this was the only part of the film in colour. It was completely staged and not an actual test transmission. Clips from the whole film are often seen when programmes want to show archive footage representing TV studio shots of the early 60s

[aka0]

Fantastic clip, thanks. Does anyone know what this music piece is?

[aptsarchive]

It's actually called "Early One Morning" and is a traditional folk song.

[TashkentFox]

Apparently, the picture on the real moniters in the studio didn't show up very well on film. so they faked it.

[aptsarchive]

There would have been a sync problem with the picture monitors being filmed by a film camera, so the "live pictures" on the monitors were faked so they looked right when the film was shown.

[borgduck]

Call me ignorant, but that looked fake.

[aptsarchive]

I agree!  The actual filming in the colour studio is real, the images that appear on the control room monitors are superimposed. But that is the only "fake" bit of the film! All the rest is genuine.

[vidpop]

Thank goodness we adopted the PAL system. The BBC quickly became aware of the shortcomings of NTSC and dropped it.

[QuadVideoTapeGroup]

Looks like this piece was shot on film.

[aptsarchive]

Yes this footage was shot on film. It was the final sequence of the BBC film This Is The BBC, completed in June 1960.

[catholicpriest1]

The cameras are a Brittish version of the RCA Tk-40.

[kargaroc386]

so they used NTSC A (or is it color). 405 lines, positive modulation, 25 FPS, AM mono sound, and in this, the ntsc color encoding system (the same as pal except all the lines are normal, no color inverting on alternate lines)

[exploder76]

Yes, the BBC Television Service had experimented the color television. BBC2 was the first TV station to receive color TV broadcasts on July 1, 1967 (officially on Dec. 2, 1967). Followed by BBC1 on Nov. 15, 1969.

[soapbox5]

Fascinating!.But what good were colour test transmissions if virtually no one owned a colour t.v. set?.

[kwinser]

the same as HD tests today!

[mubd1234]

I guess to test compatability with old sets.

[tkoizumi]

Like how we are forced to buy the digital receiver instead of analog antenna this year..... No one owned it so instead of feb, they switched it to later months this year 2009. Funny how things repeats itself lol

[mubd1234]

@soapbox5 Probably to make sure colour transmissions didn't make the black and white tvs explode from colour overload.

[aussiebeachut]

Marvellous Stuff !!

Thanks for posting !!