@@MrCoreyTys The job was like all types of employment dome good days and then again bad. Though on the whole it was a sort of privileged occupation because on the whole people where glad to see you may be that was because I worked for one of the largest TV rental companies and people did not have to pay for the repairs. For a young man back then a free company van you could use privately and as time went on estate cars became the norm. To sum it up Young single man Living in Liverpool in the 1960s with a free car a good wage for the time life back then was good. Though like all good things it does not last though living through all that music and Liverpool clubs such as the Cavern the Iron Door and the Blue Angel to name but a few gave me a lot of good memories now looking back.
Why would they do that ? If she was left handed she could have quite easily posed the other way round as it is a still picture and requires no physical dexterity whatsoever ?
They are still used today, even on new TV's. If you want your picture just right you gotta use one. Don't mind this auto adjust gimmickry, everyone's eyes are different.
I actually have the physical Norwegian Test Card F :) When I started at NRK R&D, I took over the offices of a retired engineer who hadn't bothered to clean out anything. And sure enough, gingerly packed inside a 4x5" slide film box, there it was.
@@AdamMartyn Right? I was actually quite surprised - the iconic Norwegian one is the Philips PM5544/PM5644, and I had no idea that Norway ever used Test Card F. They were packed in with other "memorabilia" from the earliest colour TV tests in Norway. We were very late to that party - first colour test transmissions began in 1972. Studio 1 was monochrome until 1985! (In fairness, very often used as a sound stage for film.) Actually until the laws were revised for digital terrestrial around the turn of the century, the terms of the license were still "experimental colour broadcasts". :)
Growing up in the 80's, I only remember seeing testcard G by NRK (as well as DR and SVT). Then with satellite TV, I remember other broadcasters having different testcards, mostly just bars, or sometkmes other patterns.
To say I'm envious is an understatement. One of my TV fantasies was to befriend a TV engineer who worked behind the scenes, and be invited to a TV broadcasters, 'back rooms', where, having expressed a great interest in the works involved, but given some kind of memento in the shape of an actual test card, or even one of their old electronic test card, 'black boxes', (preferably a Philips PM5544), that they were going to throw out, anyway. Pure fantasy, of course. But reading your story reignited my memory of thinking it.
I remember as a young teenager being home alone at night after my little sister had been rushed to hospital with a dangerously high fever. I sat in front of the TV all night with this test card on to not feel so alone and anxious. Seems so strange now to look back and remember that being the only thing I had to watch on TV during the night
Nice video. We don't use it on the air, of course, but Card F is seen in our master control at WLIO Lima, Ohio as part of the screen saver on a computer.
Never thought I’d spend 20 odd minutes of life watching a program about the test card. All the times I’d want to turn the TV off once the channel closed down or I woke up on the couch. Brilliant and informative 👏👏
@@pauldoree3967 Yes there is indeed so too. The Test Card Circle, of which I have been a member since 1996. It has its own magazine four times a year too, which is really great too. It also has a convention once a year in April which is open to members too.
@@brucedanton3669 I believe they were responsible for the appearance of the CD of the music, much of which was of very high quality. (And yes, it does have a few seconds of tone, too …)
Pure nightmare fuel as a kid 😂 It’s 1996, I sneak down stairs at 5am to watch come cartoons on our new spangle Sky box. I flick the tv on to be greeted by Carol Hersee and her clown along with eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat full volume. I never messed about with the tv after that 😂
Exactly the same for me. As a toddler in the mid 90s, I remember a couple of times coming downstairs too early on a Sunday morning, turning on the TV by myself in the dark, and being met with the test card, and the awful test tone just made it even eerier.
Growing up in New Zealand in the early 80's I never saw Test Card F, so I was watching this with an interested detatchment, but when Test Card G appeared I felt 40 years drop away and there I was, 6 years old and waiting for the sunday morning cartoons to start. Wow.
Same here I run away as a kid every time test card was on it was the clown and high pich tone I hated. I love test card music I've got records and cds. . But now asked my boys for the plush toy of bubbles the clown 😂😂 👍
Brilliant as always. Fun fact about F that I don’t think was mentioned is that the “X” in the game of noughts and crosses is the exact centre of the image 😎. Another bit of design genius from Mr Hersee.
Wow, Adam has pretty much started pumping out new documentaries almost every 3rd week or every month! No words... 😄 And a fun fact: your documentaries helped me to get the best marks in English! (I needed to make an infographic - I made 20 facts about BBC)
I remember waking up early during the 80s as a kid and just sitting and watching test card f... I remember that high pitch hum putting me in to an almost hypnotic state..
Test Card F is one of the best ever. That little girl and her clown doll Bubbles were so iconic, BBC2 and other commercials caught notice and made their own versions of it.
I did like the Post apocalyptic test card from The Mitchel and webb look. Also, there was a easter egg in one of the lego star wars games showing the test card in lego form.
As a non-brit, that's actually how I first encountered test card F! I stumbled upon some of the post-apocalyptic segments on youtube a few months ago and so that's what it's associated with in my head
Having more TV screen time than anyone else in world history is an incredible claim to fame, and it's highly unlikely that anyone will ever beat her. Bubbles was the scariest toy I'd ever seen when I was a child. Thanks to Adam, I at last know the name of my early morning childhood tormenter! ;-)
Yes, I don't think that record will ever be beaten, since test cards aren't transmitted much these days. Somewhat similar to Nana Mouskouri's sales of _physical_ records (78/LP/single/cassette/CD) clocked up over about 65 years, since few purchases of physical records take place these days.
I knew the photographer who took the photo of Carol Hersee for the test card. The late David Jones, who worked at the BBC and drank at my local pub in Newdigate, Surrey. A jolly nice chap he was too.
@@AdamMartyn Yes, as a _television_ image, it'd be hard to beat. (Some of the shots of the Adele Dixon film perhaps - I covet the "gallons per minute" meter - but Carole probably wins hands down, especially given the internationalness of it.) Actually, even among images that are _not_ specifically to do with television, it's probably pretty high - certainly up there with the Mona Lisa and the Che one, though maybe some of the ones of the late Queen might pip it, because of stamps and currency.
That test card was damn useful when you had a tv with basically a clothes hanger sticking out of it for an aerial. Twiddling the tuning knobs and the aerial, trying to get a good enough signal so all the lines would be nice and straight on the test card was a frustrating experience.
Thanks for this one Adam, you've done a great job at reminding me how old I am! I live in West Yorkshire and clearly remember our first Decca 14 inch TV arriving in around 1954. Even though I was only 2 at the time, I really do remember. At that time, we got the BBC from Holme Moss on a massive X aerial on the roof of our farmhouse. The next important event I remember is my dad's workmate calling round to ours with his long screwdriver. He was like a wizard as he stuck it into the front of our TV and twiddled it about. When I got older, I realised he was fine-tuning channel 10 to bring in ITV in time for its opening day. The new signal came from Emley Moore. I remember asking my dad's friend if we needed another aerial, and he said the picture was perfect, so the BBC one would do fine. Now, what the heck was a three year old doing, asking if we'd needed a new aerial? I have no idea, but it's true! I'm now 69, and have lived a life full of TV, radio, satellite, and electronics in general. That little black and white picture was the best thing ever, then, oh wow, colour. Now here I am watching a 55 inch TV receive programmes from a satellite some 22,300 miles in space! Who would ever have thought it back then in the 1950s?
Test card F has always fascinated me yet it still unnerves me whenever I look at it. When I was little it used to TERRIFY me, to the point at which it became my biggest fear 😭 I was born in 2000 and I remember seeing it still in use. I used to avoid watching TV at night in case it came on 🥴
It’s very interesting to me that you still saw it! I’m a few years older than you but I only ever remember seeing “Pages From Ceefax” at night; my first exposure to Test Card F was actually in _Life on Mars._
@@sundaygirl4299 ahh, that explains it - I never had access to BBC HD, as my family never had satellite, and even convincing for a Freeview box in 2007 was a lot of effort! Perhaps what you saw was Test Card W, then? :)
It was known to broadcast 24 hours a day as a hidden channel on Freeview, right up until only a few years ago. You had to go to the BBC red button service, press a complex combination of buttons, then Test Card W would appear. I tried it for myself, it really was available. But looking around, the whole system changed some time after 2014 and nobody now knows how to get it, or if it's even still provided as a hidden feature.
It was also used in That Mitchell and Webb Look as the emergency broadcast system screen introducing the post-apocalyptic 'Quiz Broadcast' comedy sketches, where the noughts and crosses game was replaced with messages such as "mummy won't wake up"
As a kid in the 60's I would watch the local (NSW, Australia) test cards waiting for the early morning cartoons to start. I now find old B&W test cards to be fascinating. : )
A great overview! I think my nostalgia quota for the day has been well and truly met! I watched this visually picturing the old family TV sets I saw it on. Thank you for bringing back such warm memories.
I'm not sure if another comment has mentioned this, but when BBC 3 was about to return to the air, a modified version of Test Card X had been seen on several test transmissions prior to it launching. The only difference was the "HD" text being in a more standard font, without the diamond surrounding it. Was gutted to have missed these transmissions as I'd have loved to have seen the test card in the flesh. There was also a way you could see it via BBC Red Button, but having tried it recently, it unfortunately no longer works. Amazing video nonetheless, I learnt a few new things from it
Despite those who would deride the presence of the test card F on our TV screens, I always felt a certain degree of comfort/affection toward it, growing up. The immortal words of the presenters saying, '... we return to a trade test transmission', with a slight pause before the card came up and the music started seemed rather homely and wholesome. In that, even when there were no programmes on, they still wanted to have their presence felt by any who continued to watch. Like welcoming an old friend into your house. The musical element added to that, with the selection of music being, (generally), easy on the ear, and complimented the test card itself, very well. Hearing any of it now instantly takes me back to a time when things were far less complicated, when you could spend a few hours chilling out, listening to anything from light orchestrations to funky jazz/electronica.
@@G6JPG That would be Flyback FBCD 2000 - Test Card Classics - The Girl, The Doll, The Music. They also did a follow-up one called FBCD 2001 - Test Card Classics 2 - Big Band Width. Then there's 10 CDs released by Apollo Sound entitled, 'From The Archives - Test Card Music', with the appropriate number.
I suppose what's so strangely eerie about test card F is that it would only appear late at night when I wasn't supposed to be up and it was such a mystery why it existed. Also, Bubbles the clown was 2spooky4me.
As a child of the 60’s I remember what seemed like an eternity, sitting in front of the huge tv that had screen doors to hide it as it wasn’t an accepted piece of furniture back then, and watching this test card in black and white waiting for the ten minutes of ‘watch with mother’. It was as boring as the test card but it was all we had. They were not ‘good old days’ , It’s wonderful how technology has moved on and how much entertainment and education our young people have today at the touch of a button.
If you had a TV with doors on it to hide the screen ,when not in use ,you must of been very posh . Most people could only afford to rent a TV back in those days . You also had to bash the TV to steady the picture ,they were wooden boxes full of glass valves .
I used to repair TVs faults with tubes with the pictures to this test card,and also adjust the sound to the music,it was wonderful, when you look back and they introduced Americanised TV to our British TV and way of life ,I feel sad ,every nation, country as its badge,culture,history rules laws,political system,,, they introduced 24.7 TV .Radio "we had wonderful TV , plus religious programs, were shown and epilogue was shown at end of day,and the religious program, it helped people to think,of maybe their day,wellbeing, their family, responsibilities, and their neighbour,,we've let our UK go to greed corruption and big brother,,
I was a T.V. engineer in the 70,s and was surrounded by t.v,s in my workshop with this testcard, brilliant peice of artwork and of course all the info that us "repairmen" needed ,we could even "converge the R.G.B. to a degree without using cross hatch generators!.. one true story that I like to tell ,is when "ceefax" came to the BBC, you would have pages and pages of information from the news,weather and even a"todays recipe" page and with all sorts of music for added entertainment, on this particular morning, I had ceefax running on a test t.v. and "todays recipe" came up, the recipe was for "lamb hotpot" I laughed so hard when I realised that the music they chose to play for the page was a version of "sheep may safely graze" by mendelson!!! a true story from the late 70,s that I still smile at today,...🤩
Yes the noughts and crosses were ideal for convergence checks . Colour sets back then didn't travel well with the older delta tubes . The manufacturer's advised that new TV's were set up in the customer's homes , so we always had a pattern generator and degaussing coil on the van. But you could at a pinch do most of it and get reasonable results with test card F.
Have just done test card artwork, with Rose Tyler holding chalk with a Tardis on the board, dalek instead of clown 🤡 R Instead of F and BAD WOLF replacing BBC TV. Wish I could show it to you, this is excellent video
Until recently, a version of TC 'W' was available on Freeview through a set of remote control keypad strokes. It was a rather poor resolution version so no real loss. I'm glad I kept a recording of the BBC 1080i TC on my PVR with 5.1 tones.
I was born in 1972 so grew up with the testcard girl. It would go off air at lunchtime on BBC 2 for play school. If I remember correctly it done a countdown on the test card
You're one of those channels that can make a video on something I've never even considered thinking about, like the history of British television, and make me care about it. Wonderful documentary!
Very rarely remember it on BBC1 but it was up on BBC2 for hours and hours during the day! TV was grim as a kid during the summer holidays in the 1970s. BBC1 had some sport on, BBC2 was the testcard and ITV had some black & white feature film. That was it.
My main memory of test cards was how they emphasised that many televisions could not properly display even the undemanding 4:3 picture format, usually clipping a fair amount at the sides. Edit: Corrected 5:4 to 4:3. 5:4 was probably closer to what one often actually got, compared with 4:3 for the transmitted picture.
Pinky And The Brain did their own version of Test Card F with Pinky as the girl and The Brain as the clown doll in an episode of the second season of the Animaniacs reboot.
I might really enjoyed that test card F because of that Girl. Even She was older, I will never forget her because of a iconic test card in UK TV History.
I have only heard of this test card recently, although you are saying it was apparently used in Australia. The one familiar to me is test card g, which was definitely used extensively in the late 70s/early 80s here.
Another informative piece on how things are different "across the pond". In the US we call it a test pattern, and it was more prevalent when I was growing up. Of course before 24/7 broadcasting stations would play the national anthem at close down, and then it would just be static. Home Box Office (HBO) had a little animation of a man yawning and calling it a night when they would go off the air in the early 1980's.
To be honest I find your test pattern slightly more useful in that it includes an infrablack segment, whereas these test cards seem to only go down to black. Though of course our test cards allow for alignment and convergence testing too all in one go, while your test patterns have different ones for those separate from the colour bars :)
Unfortunately my memory of the test cards are few and far between, but I was far more familiar with Bubbles greeting me on BBC error pages during my childhood. :P (and for something a little more out there, don't think I didn't notice Ultra Deep Field by Stellardrone in the third chapter there)
It's quaint how the early test cards label the frequency gratings in Mc/s as opposed to the standard MHz, presumably for political reasons (correct me if I'm wrong).
I worked with the make-up artist for the test card girl when I worked at ITV on the South bank in London nearly 20hrs ago. Fascinating to learn the history behind it. Is there any information regarding Gregories hole on camera line up charts i wonder?
I know it may have been before your time Adam but actually Breakfast Time on BBC1 started in January 1983; followed by TV-am on ITV in the February that year; not a month later as you have said here though too. Other than that of course, well done so then too!
why does this make me cry? I used to watch this on late sleepless nights in the early to mid 00s in my grandmother's house as I kept the tv on throughout the night to help my fear of sleeping in a Bungalow house (people walking outside) The noise of the testcard amongst 24 hour news was comforting.
You might be interested to know that the testcard shown at 16:05 is not Testcard W, but is an early "we need something..." modified version of F. It's missing the extra arrowheads at the side and has the F version of the picture in the middle with the over saturated clown and with the same framing as F that crops out the clowns hand holding the chalk. The proper version of W (as seen at 15:25) came along a few months after the unofficial wide version of F.
Am I the only one who think TV stations should spend some time signing off at night because the novelty of 24-hour broadcasting is wearing off these days?
Ah, the days of the test card, the national anthem at the end of broadcasting and that irritating high pitched note once broadcasting finished. Still better than most of the garbage on TV these days!
I remember on early colour sets the picture was massively overscanned such that the centre image was the only part of the tesr card visible in colour. Also the clown's body looked more like a shiny balloon than soft fabric.
thank you , i can remember as a young apprentice tv engineer in the early 80's timing a delivery or new installation when a customer was very specific that they wanted to see and check your set up with the test card , most were just happy to get a watchable picture but we did deal with some high end customers who could be very demanding , great times happy memories , was lucky enough to meet through my work some great tv personalities my favourite had to be Tony Hart , who lived less than a mile from where i live now , he was never demanding just charming and very welcoming into his home
As an American, I’ve gotten to know that test card from watching “The Quiz Broadcast” episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look here on UA-cam. I highly recommend it for those who have never seen it as it’s so good. Peep Show as well.
There was something a little unnerving about F, especially when the high pitch tone would wake you up, on the sofa after a night on the ale, with the little girl staring you down!😁
They were still using Test Card W in the Netherlands some years ago, around 2018. I was in Amsterdam, I did some Amsterdam things, went back to my hotel and fell asleep with the TV on. Woke up at 2am with that bloody tone and that bloody clown that had terrorised me as a kid and nearly bloody screamed. Quick way to sober up...
Test card G was NOT used outside the UK: it is a modified PM5544 for PAL I. PM5544 was optimized for PAL B/G. Most noticable difference: G has six frequency blocks, PM5544 has five (UK has a higher audio subcarrier allowing one more frequency block). Testcard G has the colour blocks at 100% saturation, PM5544 is 70%.
I'm going to be the nittiest of nitpickers here. The BBC's changes to the Philips pattern were incorporated (by Philips) into the PM5534/I and the PM5644/I both of which were sold and "used" outside of the UK. Not necessarily for public broadcasts (i.e. R&D + TV factories) but used nonetheless.
As a now retired TV Engineer that started work in the 1960's I have a framed TEST CARD F hanging in my hall just for the memories.
lol
So cool!
oh wow! how was the job then?
@@MrCoreyTys The job was like all types of employment dome good days and then again bad. Though on the whole it was a sort of privileged occupation because on the whole people where glad to see you may be that was because I worked for one of the largest TV rental companies and people did not have to pay for the repairs. For a young man back then a free company van you could use privately and as time went on estate cars became the norm. To sum it up Young single man Living in Liverpool in the 1960s with a free car a good wage for the time life back then was good. Though like all good things it does not last though living through all that music and Liverpool clubs such as the Cavern the Iron Door and the Blue Angel to name but a few gave me a lot of good memories now looking back.
@@jas20per I don’t mean to sound rude but how old are you?
Fun fact Carol is left handed so they actually flipped the slide round to make it seem as if she’s right handed.
Another fun fact is that the letter X on the board represents the exact centre of the screeen.
@@stephenmatura1086 I had heard that too, but pausing on the different variants, the X is slightly off centre until J, onscreen at 15:07.
Why would they do that ? If she was left handed she could have quite easily posed the other way round as it is a still picture and requires no physical dexterity whatsoever ?
Yup; sounds about right (no pun intended) discrimination against us left handed folk was more wide spread back then.
I don’t believe you. The X and O aren’t reversed.
As a retired TV engineer I thoroughly enjoyed this video - brilliant.
Thank you Richard! Hope it brought back some happy memories! 😊
**test card f***
As a former TV engineer, I spent many an hour with Test Card F. Carol and her clown were a very useful assistant.
They are still used today, even on new TV's. If you want your picture just right you gotta use one. Don't mind this auto adjust gimmickry, everyone's eyes are different.
I actually have the physical Norwegian Test Card F :) When I started at NRK R&D, I took over the offices of a retired engineer who hadn't bothered to clean out anything. And sure enough, gingerly packed inside a 4x5" slide film box, there it was.
What an ace piece of TV history to hold on to! 😁
@@AdamMartyn Right? I was actually quite surprised - the iconic Norwegian one is the Philips PM5544/PM5644, and I had no idea that Norway ever used Test Card F. They were packed in with other "memorabilia" from the earliest colour TV tests in Norway. We were very late to that party - first colour test transmissions began in 1972. Studio 1 was monochrome until 1985! (In fairness, very often used as a sound stage for film.)
Actually until the laws were revised for digital terrestrial around the turn of the century, the terms of the license were still "experimental colour broadcasts". :)
Growing up in the 80's, I only remember seeing testcard G by NRK (as well as DR and SVT). Then with satellite TV, I remember other broadcasters having different testcards, mostly just bars, or sometkmes other patterns.
To say I'm envious is an understatement. One of my TV fantasies was to befriend a TV engineer who worked behind the scenes, and be invited to a TV broadcasters, 'back rooms', where, having expressed a great interest in the works involved, but given some kind of memento in the shape of an actual test card, or even one of their old electronic test card, 'black boxes', (preferably a Philips PM5544), that they were going to throw out, anyway. Pure fantasy, of course. But reading your story reignited my memory of thinking it.
get it valued. could be worth millions !!!!!!!!!!
I remember as a young teenager being home alone at night after my little sister had been rushed to hospital with a dangerously high fever. I sat in front of the TV all night with this test card on to not feel so alone and anxious. Seems so strange now to look back and remember that being the only thing I had to watch on TV during the night
Nice video. We don't use it on the air, of course, but Card F is seen in our master control at WLIO Lima, Ohio as part of the screen saver on a computer.
Still used within the BBC well the 1080 version.
Was it used on the air back in the day?
@@mat2000100 Didn't you watch the video? Yes, it was - Carole has clocked up a record that will never be broken for number of screen hours.
Never thought I’d spend 20 odd minutes of life watching a program about the test card. All the times I’d want to turn the TV off once the channel closed down or I woke up on the couch. Brilliant and informative 👏👏
I believe there is actually a test card appreciation society
programme*.
@@pauldoree3967 Yes there is indeed so too. The Test Card Circle, of which I have been a member since 1996. It has its own magazine four times a year too, which is really great too. It also has a convention once a year in April which is open to members too.
@@brucedanton3669 I believe they were responsible for the appearance of the CD of the music, much of which was of very high quality. (And yes, it does have a few seconds of tone, too …)
Pure nightmare fuel as a kid 😂
It’s 1996, I sneak down stairs at 5am to watch come cartoons on our new spangle Sky box. I flick the tv on to be greeted by Carol Hersee and her clown along with eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat full volume.
I never messed about with the tv after that 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You and me both. Every time I turned the tv on after that I’d mash the buttons on the remote to get into the next channel.
Exactly the same for me. As a toddler in the mid 90s, I remember a couple of times coming downstairs too early on a Sunday morning, turning on the TV by myself in the dark, and being met with the test card, and the awful test tone just made it even eerier.
@@perishingtardis always when we tried to sneak a crafty hour of cartoons In 😂
Always the "full volume"!! 🤣 😖
Growing up in New Zealand in the early 80's I never saw Test Card F, so I was watching this with an interested detatchment, but when Test Card G appeared I felt 40 years drop away and there I was, 6 years old and waiting for the sunday morning cartoons to start. Wow.
My older sister was terrified of that test card. Turns out she was not the only one. Still freaks her out decades later!
Same here I run away as a kid every time test card was on it was the clown and high pich tone I hated. I love test card music I've got records and cds. . But now asked my boys for the plush toy of bubbles the clown 😂😂 👍
Same!!! The clown is still scary as hell.
Yeah it's definitely the clown that's freaky. I could never figure out why it was so shiny and its body was weird.
I was born in 1966 and was always asking my mum in early 70s who won the game funny never did get an answer??!
It's super creepy and always was
As a child I was given a kit to make one of the clowns used in the Testcard. Being fairly young, it certainly didn't look like the one on screen. lol
Brilliant as always. Fun fact about F that I don’t think was mentioned is that the “X” in the game of noughts and crosses is the exact centre of the image 😎. Another bit of design genius from Mr Hersee.
Basically correct. The noughts and crosses was to show static convergence errors but the 'X' was not centralised until TC 'J' came along.
Grea factage Rich
It just isn't though. Anyone can see that.
@@fdfsdfsvsfgsg4888 I just took a measuring tape @ 19:18 and measured it's not it's 6"from the x down 9" from the x up and 9 1/2" side to side
@@michaeldavison9761 Yeah that's right
Not many people know that Bubbles won that game of noughts and crosses.
Wow, Adam has pretty much started pumping out new documentaries almost every 3rd week or every month!
No words... 😄
And a fun fact: your documentaries helped me to get the best marks in English! (I needed to make an infographic - I made 20 facts about BBC)
I feel if I can get at least one out a month then I'm happy with that 💪 also glad to hear the videos helped you! May they continue to! 😊
That’s honestly great! I’m extremely proud of you.
I remember waking up early during the 80s as a kid and just sitting and watching test card f... I remember that high pitch hum putting me in to an almost hypnotic state..
Test Card F is one of the best ever. That little girl and her clown doll Bubbles were so iconic, BBC2 and other commercials caught notice and made their own versions of it.
That they did! But no others were arguably ever as iconic as the original! 😁
@@AdamMartyn For sure. The original Test Card F just cannot be topped
I did like the Post apocalyptic test card from The Mitchel and webb look. Also, there was a easter egg in one of the lego star wars games showing the test card in lego form.
As a non-brit, that's actually how I first encountered test card F! I stumbled upon some of the post-apocalyptic segments on youtube a few months ago and so that's what it's associated with in my head
Having more TV screen time than anyone else in world history is an incredible claim to fame, and it's highly unlikely that anyone will ever beat her.
Bubbles was the scariest toy I'd ever seen when I was a child. Thanks to Adam, I at last know the name of my early morning childhood tormenter! ;-)
Yes, I don't think that record will ever be beaten, since test cards aren't transmitted much these days. Somewhat similar to Nana Mouskouri's sales of _physical_ records (78/LP/single/cassette/CD) clocked up over about 65 years, since few purchases of physical records take place these days.
I knew the photographer who took the photo of Carol Hersee for the test card. The late David Jones, who worked at the BBC and drank at my local pub in Newdigate, Surrey. A jolly nice chap he was too.
Brilliant documentary, possibly your best one. The test card girl is such a timeless image, it’s so simple, but iconic
Thank you so much! Arguable the most iconic television image out there!
@@AdamMartyn Yes, as a _television_ image, it'd be hard to beat. (Some of the shots of the Adele Dixon film perhaps - I covet the "gallons per minute" meter - but Carole probably wins hands down, especially given the internationalness of it.) Actually, even among images that are _not_ specifically to do with television, it's probably pretty high - certainly up there with the Mona Lisa and the Che one, though maybe some of the ones of the late Queen might pip it, because of stamps and currency.
They should bring the Testcard and the Closedown back. 24 hour TV means more licence money spent on more crap. And usually woke crap.
That effing clown scared me senseless as a kid.
I want to see this test card in 4K when the BBC starts to broadcasting in 4K
That test card was damn useful when you had a tv with basically a clothes hanger sticking out of it for an aerial. Twiddling the tuning knobs and the aerial, trying to get a good enough signal so all the lines would be nice and straight on the test card was a frustrating experience.
Thanks for this one Adam, you've done a great job at reminding me how old I am! I live in West Yorkshire and clearly remember our first Decca 14 inch TV arriving in around 1954. Even though I was only 2 at the time, I really do remember. At that time, we got the BBC from Holme Moss on a massive X aerial on the roof of our farmhouse. The next important event I remember is my dad's workmate calling round to ours with his long screwdriver. He was like a wizard as he stuck it into the front of our TV and twiddled it about. When I got older, I realised he was fine-tuning channel 10 to bring in ITV in time for its opening day. The new signal came from Emley Moore. I remember asking my dad's friend if we needed another aerial, and he said the picture was perfect, so the BBC one would do fine. Now, what the heck was a three year old doing, asking if we'd needed a new aerial? I have no idea, but it's true! I'm now 69, and have lived a life full of TV, radio, satellite, and electronics in general. That little black and white picture was the best thing ever, then, oh wow, colour. Now here I am watching a 55 inch TV receive programmes from a satellite some 22,300 miles in space! Who would ever have thought it back then in the 1950s?
Test card F has always fascinated me yet it still unnerves me whenever I look at it. When I was little it used to TERRIFY me, to the point at which it became my biggest fear 😭 I was born in 2000 and I remember seeing it still in use. I used to avoid watching TV at night in case it came on 🥴
It’s very interesting to me that you still saw it! I’m a few years older than you but I only ever remember seeing “Pages From Ceefax” at night; my first exposure to Test Card F was actually in _Life on Mars._
@@kaitlyn__L they used to occasionally show it on the now defunct channel BBC HD circa 2008/2009 - that’s when I remember seeing it!
@@sundaygirl4299 ahh, that explains it - I never had access to BBC HD, as my family never had satellite, and even convincing for a Freeview box in 2007 was a lot of effort! Perhaps what you saw was Test Card W, then? :)
It was known to broadcast 24 hours a day as a hidden channel on Freeview, right up until only a few years ago. You had to go to the BBC red button service, press a complex combination of buttons, then Test Card W would appear. I tried it for myself, it really was available. But looking around, the whole system changed some time after 2014 and nobody now knows how to get it, or if it's even still provided as a hidden feature.
It was also used in That Mitchell and Webb Look as the emergency broadcast system screen introducing the post-apocalyptic 'Quiz Broadcast' comedy sketches, where the noughts and crosses game was replaced with messages such as "mummy won't wake up"
As a kid in the 60's I would watch the local (NSW, Australia) test cards waiting for the early morning cartoons to start. I now find old B&W test cards to be fascinating. : )
A great overview! I think my nostalgia quota for the day has been well and truly met! I watched this visually picturing the old family TV sets I saw it on. Thank you for bringing back such warm memories.
Always a pleasure my friend 😊
I'm not sure if another comment has mentioned this, but when BBC 3 was about to return to the air, a modified version of Test Card X had been seen on several test transmissions prior to it launching. The only difference was the "HD" text being in a more standard font, without the diamond surrounding it. Was gutted to have missed these transmissions as I'd have loved to have seen the test card in the flesh. There was also a way you could see it via BBC Red Button, but having tried it recently, it unfortunately no longer works.
Amazing video nonetheless, I learnt a few new things from it
Despite those who would deride the presence of the test card F on our TV screens, I always felt a certain degree of comfort/affection toward it, growing up. The immortal words of the presenters saying, '... we return to a trade test transmission', with a slight pause before the card came up and the music started seemed rather homely and wholesome. In that, even when there were no programmes on, they still wanted to have their presence felt by any who continued to watch. Like welcoming an old friend into your house. The musical element added to that, with the selection of music being, (generally), easy on the ear, and complimented the test card itself, very well. Hearing any of it now instantly takes me back to a time when things were far less complicated, when you could spend a few hours chilling out, listening to anything from light orchestrations to funky jazz/electronica.
There is a CD.
@@G6JPG There's more than one. There's many CDs available that contain the music in question.
@@j0hnf_uk There's one particular one with TCF on the cover.
@@G6JPG That would be Flyback FBCD 2000 - Test Card Classics - The Girl, The Doll, The Music. They also did a follow-up one called FBCD 2001 - Test Card Classics 2 - Big Band Width. Then there's 10 CDs released by Apollo Sound entitled, 'From The Archives - Test Card Music', with the appropriate number.
As an American I never saw Test card F till I saw Life on Mars. It fascinated me, I had it as my computer wallpaper for a long time.
I suppose what's so strangely eerie about test card F is that it would only appear late at night when I wasn't supposed to be up and it was such a mystery why it existed.
Also, Bubbles the clown was 2spooky4me.
It did used to be shown in the daytime up until the 1980s on BBC1 or 2 when daytime tv arrived so too of course.
As a child of the 60’s I remember what seemed like an eternity, sitting in front of the huge tv that had screen doors to hide it as it wasn’t an accepted piece of furniture back then, and watching this test card in black and white waiting for the ten minutes of ‘watch with mother’. It was as boring as the test card but it was all we had. They were not ‘good old days’ , It’s wonderful how technology has moved on and how much entertainment and education our young people have today at the touch of a button.
If you had a TV with doors on it to hide the screen ,when not in use ,you must of been very posh . Most people could only afford to rent a TV back in those days . You also had to bash the TV to steady the picture ,they were wooden boxes full of glass valves .
I think the amount of stuff including easy access to 24 hour social media is the downfall of the younger generations.
I used to repair TVs faults with tubes with the pictures to this test card,and also adjust the sound to the music,it was wonderful, when you look back and they introduced Americanised TV to our British TV and way of life ,I feel sad ,every nation, country as its badge,culture,history rules laws,political system,,, they introduced 24.7 TV .Radio "we had wonderful TV , plus religious programs, were shown and epilogue was shown at end of day,and the religious program, it helped people to think,of maybe their day,wellbeing, their family, responsibilities, and their neighbour,,we've let our UK go to greed corruption and big brother,,
I was a T.V. engineer in the 70,s and was surrounded by t.v,s in my workshop with this testcard, brilliant peice of artwork and of course all the info that us "repairmen" needed ,we could even "converge the R.G.B. to a degree without using cross hatch generators!..
one true story that I like to tell ,is when "ceefax" came to the BBC, you would have pages and pages of information from the news,weather and even a"todays recipe" page and with all sorts of music for added entertainment,
on this particular morning, I had ceefax running on a test t.v. and "todays recipe" came up,
the recipe was for "lamb hotpot" I laughed so hard when I realised that the music they chose to play for the page was a version of "sheep may safely graze" by mendelson!!! a true story from the late 70,s that I still smile at today,...🤩
Bamboozle was always fun to play.
"They may safely graze... BUT NOT TODAY!"
Yes the noughts and crosses were ideal for convergence checks . Colour sets back then didn't travel well with the older delta tubes . The manufacturer's advised that new TV's were set up in the customer's homes , so we always had a pattern generator and degaussing coil on the van. But you could at a pinch do most of it and get reasonable results with test card F.
Sheep May Safely Graze is by J S Bach if I’m not mistaken.
@@joannedixon-jackson7348 whoops, your right of course..🙄lol....
Quite a claim to fame....having the most screen time than any other person alive....wow...
Have just done test card artwork, with Rose Tyler holding chalk with a Tardis on the board, dalek instead of clown 🤡 R Instead of F and BAD WOLF replacing BBC TV. Wish I could show it to you, this is excellent video
That sounds ace! If you have Twitter you could shoot it over as a DM?
@@AdamMartyn I don’t unfortunately, and fb has become a dead duck 🦆
She visited my school when I was younger (around 1998) to give a talk in an assembly
That's so cool! Wonder if she still does anything like that today!
That girl in the test card is forever embedded into my childhood I was born in 1983 for some reason I remember staring at it late at night.
TIL that what we call tic-tac-toe in America is naughts and crosses in the UK
Until recently, a version of TC 'W' was available on Freeview through a set of remote control keypad strokes. It was a rather poor resolution version so no real loss. I'm glad I kept a recording of the BBC 1080i TC on my PVR with 5.1 tones.
Yes, I used the Freeview one to make geometry adjustments to a Sony widescreen set after a few of the tube magnets fell off!
I remember watching this before the kids TV started on a Saturday. I used to swear I'd see her slightly move....
I was born in 1972 so grew up with the testcard girl. It would go off air at lunchtime on BBC 2 for play school. If I remember correctly it done a countdown on the test card
You're one of those channels that can make a video on something I've never even considered thinking about, like the history of British television, and make me care about it. Wonderful documentary!
Thank you so much pal! 😁 really happy that it got your interest!
Very rarely remember it on BBC1 but it was up on BBC2 for hours and hours during the day! TV was grim as a kid during the summer holidays in the 1970s. BBC1 had some sport on, BBC2 was the testcard and ITV had some black & white feature film. That was it.
My main memory of test cards was how they emphasised that many televisions could not properly display even the undemanding 4:3 picture format, usually clipping a fair amount at the sides.
Edit: Corrected 5:4 to 4:3. 5:4 was probably closer to what one often actually got, compared with 4:3 for the transmitted picture.
Pinky And The Brain did their own version of Test Card F with Pinky as the girl and The Brain as the clown doll in an episode of the second season of the Animaniacs reboot.
I might really enjoyed that test card F because of that Girl. Even She was older, I will never forget her because of a iconic test card in UK TV History.
Btw, I am not a British user, I am a Venezuelan user. That’s all I can tell.
I have only heard of this test card recently, although you are saying it was apparently used in Australia. The one familiar to me is test card g, which was definitely used extensively in the late 70s/early 80s here.
Another informative piece on how things are different "across the pond". In the US we call it a test pattern, and it was more prevalent when I was growing up. Of course before 24/7 broadcasting stations would play the national anthem at close down, and then it would just be static. Home Box Office (HBO) had a little animation of a man yawning and calling it a night when they would go off the air in the early 1980's.
To be honest I find your test pattern slightly more useful in that it includes an infrablack segment, whereas these test cards seem to only go down to black. Though of course our test cards allow for alignment and convergence testing too all in one go, while your test patterns have different ones for those separate from the colour bars :)
Unfortunately my memory of the test cards are few and far between, but I was far more familiar with Bubbles greeting me on BBC error pages during my childhood. :P
(and for something a little more out there, don't think I didn't notice Ultra Deep Field by Stellardrone in the third chapter there)
It's quaint how the early test cards label the frequency gratings in Mc/s as opposed to the standard MHz, presumably for political reasons (correct me if I'm wrong).
There was also a wet wet wet parody of TCF in 1987 in the video to "wishing I was lucky" & in 1989 there was a "spitting image" parody..
My nan has C, D and BBC1/2 copies up in easel like frames in her entryway/foyer but they don’t have the letter nor the BBC logos
I had nightmares about that creepy-ass clown as a kid
I thought the late great Regional Spillman holds the world record for the most time on television. Before he passed away
0:44 Jim'll Fix It is on at 6.10pm! Little did we know what was going on... 😬
Breakfast time launched on the 17th January 1983 TV-am was the 1st February 1983
Small correction, breakfast TV started 17th January, not February. Happy 13th birthday to me 😉
I worked with the make-up artist for the test card girl when I worked at ITV on the South bank in London nearly 20hrs ago. Fascinating to learn the history behind it. Is there any information regarding Gregories hole on camera line up charts i wonder?
I know it may have been before your time Adam but actually Breakfast Time on BBC1 started in January 1983; followed by TV-am on ITV in the February that year; not a month later as you have said here though too. Other than that of course, well done so then too!
why does this make me cry? I used to watch this on late sleepless nights in the early to mid 00s in my grandmother's house as I kept the tv on throughout the night to help my fear of sleeping in a Bungalow house (people walking outside) The noise of the testcard amongst 24 hour news was comforting.
Children clothes can be timeless, especially for girls, so you can't say, is it 1950's or 1970's
100 quid? Imagine if she'd gone for royalties, she'd be loaded, lol.
God this is one of the most geekiest things that I have ever seen.
Thank you it's amazing
Any p uk teacher retired
You might be interested to know that the testcard shown at 16:05 is not Testcard W, but is an early "we need something..." modified version of F. It's missing the extra arrowheads at the side and has the F version of the picture in the middle with the over saturated clown and with the same framing as F that crops out the clowns hand holding the chalk. The proper version of W (as seen at 15:25) came along a few months after the unofficial wide version of F.
It's a pity that there isn't a standard test card today that could be used for comparing resolution between different monitors.
New Zealander here - I remember "Test Card F" well! I'm sure we had exactly the same version as the UK!
Am I the only one who think TV stations should spend some time signing off at night because the novelty of 24-hour broadcasting is wearing off these days?
Just think of all those long nights she had to stay up sitting in front of the camera with her toy clown... that poor girl!
I remember when they switched to J and it was a rare treat to catch F again. early to mid 90s used to hunt out F at night.
The Beeb made a new test card for UHD TVs, Test Card M
It’s always good to hear about Life on Mars
Ah, the days of the test card, the national anthem at the end of broadcasting and that irritating high pitched note once broadcasting finished. Still better than most of the garbage on TV these days!
That clock, though, with its simulation of the slight jiggle in the second hand after each abrupt movement. Attention to detail!
I quite liked the Sky version of the test card, with Myleene Class replacing Carole in the centre.
Roger Mellies own version with BOLL written on the blackboard.
Bubbles was the precursor to Pennywise the clown in 'IT'...
The band Cybernetic Witch Cult use it as they do soundcheck and before they start
I remember on early colour sets the picture was massively overscanned such that the centre image was the only part of the tesr card visible in colour. Also the clown's body looked more like a shiny balloon than soft fabric.
2:55 interesting, BBC's test card was a biblically accurate angel
Am I the only one that saw the thumbnail and thought it was about the 1980s Norwich band of the same name?
Interesting doc and channel. Takes me back to the 80's as a kid. Only a few decades ago or so but a completely different world
here most channels if they broadcast after midnight are broadcasting TV shopping ads.
thank you , i can remember as a young apprentice tv engineer in the early 80's timing a delivery or new installation when a customer was very specific that they wanted to see and check your set up with the test card , most were just happy to get a watchable picture but we did deal with some high end customers who could be very demanding , great times happy memories , was lucky enough to meet through my work some great tv personalities my favourite had to be Tony Hart , who lived less than a mile from where i live now , he was never demanding just charming and very welcoming into his home
As an American, I’ve gotten to know that test card from watching “The Quiz Broadcast” episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look here on UA-cam. I highly recommend it for those who have never seen it as it’s so good. Peep Show as well.
Life on Mars is where I discovered it.
There is something of the Mona Lisa with that enigmatic smile. I wonder if that had any influence on its iconic status and longevity?
There was something a little unnerving about F, especially when the high pitch tone would wake you up, on the sofa after a night on the ale, with the little girl staring you down!😁
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing both Test card F and the PM5544 Test Card used both here in Australia and also in New Zealamd.
theres a version on new bbc three, but basically the same as x, just without the dimond hd thing
I honestry thought it was a car TV programe of kids and was called test car f.
They were still using Test Card W in the Netherlands some years ago, around 2018. I was in Amsterdam, I did some Amsterdam things, went back to my hotel and fell asleep with the TV on. Woke up at 2am with that bloody tone and that bloody clown that had terrorised me as a kid and nearly bloody screamed.
Quick way to sober up...
Test card X is still in use, just without the surround sound test tones
Yeh it was on BBC sport for some reason last year
Play the intro at 2x speed and it sounds like an old dance song from way back when 🤣
I only just remember the girl with the doll & black board.
I seen this before, a classic that features a girl and a clown playing a game of Tic tac toe
Test card G was NOT used outside the UK: it is a modified PM5544 for PAL I. PM5544 was optimized for PAL B/G. Most noticable difference: G has six frequency blocks, PM5544 has five (UK has a higher audio subcarrier allowing one more frequency block). Testcard G has the colour blocks at 100% saturation, PM5544 is 70%.
I'm going to be the nittiest of nitpickers here. The BBC's changes to the Philips pattern were incorporated (by Philips) into the PM5534/I and the PM5644/I both of which were sold and "used" outside of the UK. Not necessarily for public broadcasts (i.e. R&D + TV factories) but used nonetheless.
I wonder if Test Card F was ever seen on TV screens in America
Watched a lot of TV here in USA ... never saw it.