UK TV in the 50's and 60's

[FlyTexas]

Liked the bit about the "toddlers' truce".
http://www.retrowow.co.uk/television/television.html

Brian

[JohnD]

Great article, reminded me of the time I worked in a radio /tv shop in Wallingford Berkshire in the early 60's. We would erect tv aerials on chimneys.
Large 'H' aerials were for BBC and when ITV came along we fitted 'H + 7s'. The seven element aerials were for ITV.
BBC2 aerials were different and had to be separate with thicker cable. The aerials were very light aluminium construction.

When colour came along we opened the shop in the evening for the first night of broadcasting. The first colour TV's were about £380 if I remember correctly. I think the first programme was Singing in the Rain.

In 1952/3 when we lived at the RAF station at White Waltham my father bought a TV and he had to get permission to have the aerial fitted as no one else had one!

Those were the days. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

Regards
John

[Tomliner]

This is a fascinating subject.If anyone wants to read more about it I can recommend a book called 'Armchair Nation' by Joe Moran. Unfortunately I don't have the ISBN to hand but an online search will quickly find it. EricT

[cstorey]

And if you want to see what was on on, for example , 24 January 1956 ( or for that matter 1926 !! ) on either BBC radio or TV, you can consult the Radio Times, using this fully searchable engine

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

[Dev One]

Great article, reminded me of the time I worked in a radio /tv shop in Wallingford Berkshire in the early 60's. We would erect tv aerials on chimneys.
Large 'H' aerials were for BBC and when ITV came along we fitted 'H + 7s'. The seven element aerials were for ITV.
BBC2 aerials were different and had to be separate with thicker cable. The aerials were very light aluminium construction.

When colour came along we opened the shop in the evening for the first night of broadcasting. The first colour TV's were about £380 if I remember correctly. I think the first programme was Singing in the Rain.

In 1952/3 when we lived at the RAF station at White Waltham my father bought a TV and he had to get permission to have the aerial fitted as no one else had one!

Those were the days. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

Regards
John

Yes ....my father bought a 9" Ferguson cabinet model to view the coronation( including don't forget the interference from passing cars! - I think it cost 78 guineas - a lot back in '53 when average weekly earnings I think was about £2.50 a week, One could buy a Ford for £299!.....Nostalgia.......= getting old!
Keith

[Tomliner]

Same with my old man Keith,except that it was a 9 inch Philips.I can remember a houseful of neighbours watching the Coronation.Wouldn't be surprised if they even watched the white spot slowly disappear when the set was switched off ! EricT

[Garry Russell]

I used to watch the white spot.

We had an old TV that about a minuet after it was switched on we had sound and maybe two minuets later a picture , very slow. We were under the flight path and every time an aeroplane flew over the picture wobbled.

[robbie]

Brought back a lot of memories for me too..believe it or not I never knew which day of the week I was born on!!, now I know it was a Wednesday, thanks Brian.

Yep, Andy Pandy, Bill & Ben, Wooden tops, anyone remember "Muffin the mule"?,.........apparently that's illegal now!!

I used to watch the white spot too Garry

Robbie

[Vancouver]

Yes an interesting thread. My old mum had a Radio Rental B & W TV. "Baird" was the make after John Logie Baird. (http://www.bairdtelevision.com/) Where would we have been without him, a fine Scots laddie.
Anyway she rented that set from @ 1962 thru' 1975 when she was persuaded to upgrade to a bought colour set. She must have paid for that old set several times over. Still, to Radio Rentals credit I only recall one occasion when a tube needed replacing and they came out that same day and repaired it. They don't make 'em like that any more.
I recall watching the Moon landings on it.
Also, we were directly under the flight path from Glasgow airport. We also suffered with the wobbly picture and radar dots on the screen and the beep, beep, beeeep. It would not be tolerated these days I'm sure. We were made of more resilient stuff then of course.
Ah happy days.

[nigelb]

I remember watching the Coronation at my great aunt's - the only TV in the family at that time. My father brought our first TV in 1954 and Wimbledon was the first event I remeber watching, the the Olympics from Rome if I recall correctly. I do remember Bill and Ben, Mufin the Mule and Andy Pandy. Also a lot of American shows such as Phil Silvers, George Burns & Gracie Allen, The Longe Ranger and Hopolong Cassisdy. The BBC use to show a short called London to Brighton in four minutes that I loved to watch. Count me in as one who also watched the white spot as the telly was switched off.

Nigel²