Royal Daffodil (BBC1 1969-1972)

This was the last test card tape which was introduced to BBC1 in the 1960s, and certainly the last before the advent of colour television on the network. The BBC idents were still intact, but I found it hard to believe that BBC1 didn't even use 1kHz tone back then but shared theirs with BBC2. This had been in use from September 1969 to replace Golondrina until August 1972 when the switchover to hour-long tapes had occurred. Enjoy!!!!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• BBC1
• testcard
• music

[luizgazitamenfilms]

why was the girl in the picture playing tic-tac-toe?

[cwilliams1976]

@luizgazitamenfilms This was done for technical reasons such as ghosting and convergence mainly, and for instance the white on black helps to test the quality of say the white lettering on a black background when end credits on programmes and films are transmitted, and the X at the centre of the screen is supposed to mark that spot, so it does make sense.

[rbinge]

This is very well done but just want to share my memories of the changeover in 1969.

BBC2 was duplicated on the channel for BBC1 on Crystal Palace, with the addition of a grey strip reading "BBC1 COLOUR" in rhomboids for BBC1. This was overlaid at the same level as the testcard ident. When BBC1 went live on UHF the testcard on BBC1 had the ident in rhomboids but TCF on both BBC1 and 2 dropped the frequency numbers.

[cwilliams1976]

Actually, it had been confirmed by Malcolm O'Neill of the Test Card Circle that only just "BBC1" in the rhombus boxes were displayed in the overlay, and the frequency numbers may have occurred later on. I also believe that the BBC1 strip had also remained on view on the colourbars.

[ClubPenguinGuy1994]

i like D

i always thought F was creepy

[redsnapper1959]

@cwilliams1976: BBC1 brought in the 1 KHz tone around December 1969, very shortly after TCF and colour arrived on the channel.

[palexandersquires]

Lovely tune I have got this on my cd of testcard music

[MrCrispian]

I seem to remember a image of a telegraph tower and also short films which were test transmissions...are any of these available?

[sirtinycreep]

Nice music.

[lyniseuk]

Hi Cwilliams 1976, was the frequency grating numbers broadcast on both 405 and 625 line services on BBC 1 as I don't remember seeing them? Great job and music, keep up the good work mate.

[MikeHudson65]

I love this test card music. Does anyone know where I can get it? Do they call it lounge music?

[sirtinycreep]

You're all so knowledgeable.