
You that feeling when……. you are watching a black & white movie (Carry On Regardless, 1961) and your carer arrives asks what you’re watching and questions “So when did colour tv start?”
I explained that there were colour films shown in cinemas before there was colour tv because colour over black & white was hideously expensive to make. I thought that colour tv was introduced around the late 1960’s (turns out it was a Wimbledon final 1967 on BBC2) before becoming mainstream in early 1970’s.
This branched on to the fact there were (and still are) tv licenses for either a colour tv or a black & white one, this notion seemed quite startling, along with that many homes did not have a colour TV set until the mid/end of the 1970’s.
When I went on to remark that I remember as a child being told to change the channel because there were no remotes, and there were only three channels broadcasting at set times of the day (kids tv about 3pm til shutdown 11pm), and that at close down the BBC would play the National Anthem – well my carer’s jaw dropped to the floor.
When I said channel 4 didn’t start until 1982 and Sky started 1989 she remarked that she found it hard to believe these things happened not that long before she was born (1998).
Talk about feeling ancient!!

menhir1
December 20, 2020 at 9:50 pm
Welcome to the ancients club.
You forgot to mention that the majority of TV’s were rented. In some parts, Colour TV wasn’t available even when it was in the South of England.
Monochrome was available for domestic viewing,(rented) by the time the Queen was crowned. There was mass demand for the T.V’s for the occasion. I visited a family friend who got one. We all sat round watching the panoply of the Coronation. (I was very young at the time). I am not sure you would know about this, as you are, I believe, too young to have been a part of it. Xxxx
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AnneMarie
December 20, 2020 at 9:55 pm
I am roughly the same age as BBC2 transmitting colour 😬 but there are times when chatting with my carers (one of whom was born this, THIS, century) I feel the age of an Egyptian mummy!
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menhir1
December 20, 2020 at 10:10 pm
Well, now you can kid the carers a bit more with your historical recall. Oh, and there was only one channel, all the news readers were R.E. spoken men- no glamour- time limited viewing prevailed and the wee tele screen did spring in to life a bit quicker than cathode tube radios. Xxx
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AnneMarie
December 20, 2020 at 10:14 pm
Ah yes, the jolly old Queen’s English. News readers dressed in evening attire, lol. Turning the set on the warm the tubes…. the dear old test card.
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Fi
December 20, 2020 at 11:16 pm
Had to put 50p in our rental telly to watch lol. Tv had nobs to balance the picture.
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AnneMarie
December 21, 2020 at 11:55 am
Oh blimey! Lol. Oh the horizontal and vertical hold that would change as the set warmed up or you changed channel. We were pioneers 🤣
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snowbird
December 22, 2020 at 10:46 pm
This had me laughing! I am always shocked at how young doctors and police are these days! Age does suddenly creep up doesn’t it?xxx
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AnneMarie
December 22, 2020 at 10:48 pm
When one of my carers happened to let slip she was born this century, that was it – my fond childhood, teen, early adult musings are of grandparent dotage!!
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