1985: The WEATHER Goes ELECTRIC | Blue Peter | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

Farewell, magnetic tape and sticky symbols! The BBC weather report is riding the winds of technological change.
Simon Groom gets a hands-on demonstration of the BBC's new computerised forecasting system, with a little help from Bill Giles, Michael Fish, Liz Jones... and something called a mouse.
This clip is from Blue Peter, originally broadcast 18 February, 1985.
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[@louispugsleybirch8212]

"This clever little box is called a mouse" love this

[@FuriousGrizz]

Sounds like a stupid idea, I bet it will never take off

[@Neil070]

"Mouse"? "Cursor"? What are these strange enchantments? Tools of the devil?

[@tomsbondars]

The way he clicks (smacks) the mouse buttons like am old person too 😂

[@Carrosive]

"Can I have a go with the mouse?"

[@emanuel3617]

@@FuriousGrizz it's just a gimmick

[@MePeterNicholls]

“What about the fish?” “We have to use him occasionally…” 😂😂😂

[@unnamedchannel1237]

I don’t think he had seen the fish in he was trying it to make a joke and then there was actually a fish there

[@petermostyneccleston2884]

Mr. Fish, and the storm that we were not going to get?

[@MePeterNicholls]

@@petermostyneccleston2884 was not his fault.

[@davomcbones8138]

I need to add a fish on my pc so i can also be a weather man

[@TheBaldr]

The fish was very useful in the old days. As a weatherman you would stick the fish outside for 5 minutes. If the fish was dry, it was not raining, if it was wet it was raining. If the fish was hot, it was a hot day, if the fish was cold, it was a cold day, etc.

[@mariomario1849]

"can you make him stand on his head? Oh yes, you can. Mind-blowing technology" lmao

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

In Australia its always like that.

[@akaaoi]

It really was incredible for the early 80s. Flipping a multi colour image on the fly with a graphics dedicated Quantel instead of slowly redrawing it line by line on a regular personal computer (almost certainly in less colours) from the same time period would have shown how night-and-day the difference was.

[@jessed1709]

Interesting that in 1985 the public did not know what a mouse or cursor was.

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

We didn't. I remember being introduced to a mouse with a Paintbox type program in 1986 at High School. It was revolutionary. Such computers capable were expensive.

[@Markcain268]

Nope, didn't need to know either, times were easier then

[@wizardaka]

Most people hadn't seen the mother of all demos

[@soupwizard]

As a teenager in 1984 I tried out a Macintosh at a local computer store, but I couldn't figure out how to fully use it because I'd never seen a GUI and a mouse before! I just knew it felt like the future had arrived.

[@garyhunt8067]

I think most fans knew what a mouse 🖱 is.

[@chinnyvision]

Note that the Apple isn't generating the graphics. It's just a drag and drop interface for the weathermen to use. The heavy lifting is being done by the Quantel Paintbox.

[@scottishwildcat]

Interesting that they're not even using drag and drop, as such -- they clicked the thing they wanted, then clicked where it should go. And only at that point did it seem to stick to the cursor for fine positioning, which confused Simon when he thought he hadn't "picked up" the sun symbol at all.

[@AtheistOrphan]

It’s a Lisa, the precursor to the Mac.

[@tomgidden]

I think this is the only real-world use of the Lisa I’ve ever seen. I assumed for a minute it was a Macintosh XL, but that’s Lisa OS there. No surprise the BBC went with another dead-end platform :)

[@korma9732]

Clearly remember this

[@reddwarfer999]

@@scottishwildcat Yes, I thought exactly the same. Proper 'drag & drop' is just so much more intuative.

[@willies545]

"Can you make him stand on his head?" "MIND BLOWING TECHNOLOGY!"😂🤣

[@minero1775]

I love how much computers changed something so simple as the weather forecast. imagine spending 45 mins setting up all that map 😩 only to have stickers fall apart and things go wrong!

[@juminrhee4255]

Don't know why they didn't just use magnets and magnetic board 🤔

[@KingTFD]

@@juminrhee4255 you clearly didn't watch the video at all

[@juminrhee4255]

@@KingTFD I did. All the way. I might have missed something.

[@markboulton954]

@@juminrhee4255 You certainly did.

[@tehs3raph1m]

@@markboulton954 all the bits about the magnets and magnetic board

[@sandycheeks7865]

Nice to see Apple Lisas in the wild, actually being used as a workhorse and not just in a museum.

[@SuperMatthew128]

Based on it's look, it is most likely a Macintosh XL, given the 3 1/2" Diskette drive, while Lisas used the FileWare format, being 5 1/4".

[@sandycheeks7865]

@@SuperMatthew128 Sure, although a Macintosh XL is an Apple Lisa, rather than actually a Macintosh!

[@SuperMatthew128]

@@sandycheeks7865 indeed it is, but I'd imagine that Apple was pushing the 3 1/2" floppy mostly on Macintoshes, while the Lisa stayed with 5 1/4". Maybe they tried to upgrade the Lisa's disks to something better at the end of its life, and I wasn't aware of it, which is why I didn't recognize it as a Lisa at first.

[@musiclabmn]

@@SuperMatthew128 I had two Macintosh XL's I converted back to Lisa 2/10's. The second gen Lisas (before they were resold as Mac XL's) had 400k drives (3.5) and widget 10mb HDD's. All of mine still worked amazingly, I wish I didn't get sell them a few years ago.

[@kFY514]

Judging from the UI fonts and the keyboard shortcuts labeled with Apple symbols and not looped squares, it's actually running Lisa OS and not MacWorks here. The 3.5" drive was introduced in Lisa 2, a year before the Mac XL rebranding.

[@freddieblake7545]

Am I the only one who is surprised how advanced this seems for the mid 80s?

[@paulhellawell5920]

yes

[@petermostyneccleston2884]

It is to space age for me now.

[@elboobio5920]

Considering we didn't get a proper PC at home until 1999, this would have been mind boggling

[@tehguitarque]

apple lol

[@jm036]

@@tehguitarque The apple was merely a frontend. They really always were overpriced facebook machines.

[@wizardaka]

This is wonderful. Makes you remember when tech was more optimistic and liberating.

[@minnielee3399]

Not as wonderful as 8:00 Janet Ellis wearing pink tights.😋

[@tma2001]

@@minnielee3399 yeah I had a crush on her at the time - I was surprised at how tiny she was in person when I joined the Beeb.

[@minnielee3399]

@@tma2001 Yeh,most school boys had a crush on her at the time.😄

[@peepa47]

you dont even realise how technology is making your life so much easier in so many ways, otherwise you wouldnt have written such nonsense

@@peepa47 Right wing types only know fear. Knowledge is power and they are clueless powerless chunks of stupid.

[@tma2001]

@2:00 it's so surreal to see my first job at the Beeb after all this time! I still have the Blue Peter badge from their visit!

[@Lukio1081]

You could tell Bill and Michael had a wicked sense of humour and worked well together.

[@edum.6353]

please BBC, bring more 80s stuff

[@yux]

@James ok virgin

[@edum.6353]

​@James IKR? I wish I had lived through the 80s but I'm a 1992 kid. How can I miss something I didn't live?

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

​@@edum.6353 I lived through one year of the 80s. Too young to remember it though.

[@rileyleal]

As impressive as the Lisa and their software was, I think I might be most impressed actually by the digital chroma key, the back projection method (which is so clever), and the crispness of the matte, there's no bleeding or fuzziness!

[@houstonhelicoptertours1006]

It's not exactly complicated to build a simple keyer like that in both hard and software. The devil is in the details...and specifically in the analog > digital conversion.

[@markboulton954]

@@houstonhelicoptertours1006 And yet no chromakeying on the weather these days is done nearly as well... Just as well for the broadcasters that screens became so good a few years ago that chromakeying is hardly ever needed now because the presenter can simply stand in front of a real screen with hardly any quality loss.

[@MarcoFHQ]

I still remember a friend of mine had to CONVINCE me to get a mouse in 1990 but I was like 'nah, why would I need such a thing'. Now I couldn't make a living without one... 🤷‍♂

[@kazisamir3411]

Just get a mouse or did your PC then didn't need a mouse?

[@abab-uy4bz]

got a mouse last year but it went and shat in my cutlery drawer😦

[@MarcoFHQ]

@@kazisamir3411 I used to do just with the keyboard! (very slowly, I might add)

[@66kaisersoza]

I've always liked the colour display from 80s cameras. Theres something quite comforting about it for me

[@rismaq2]

- Can you make him stand on his head? - yeah - Mind blowing technology

[@Bertie_Ahern]

I remember when I first invented the weather. I never expected it to end up like this!

[@riseandshine75]

Hello God❤

[@TheDarkestStar1]

Lolwhut? This bertie fellow is god?

[@brendanthebomber.]

Sup god

[@gingercheesecake7357]

Can god reverse that?

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

God you are my idol, can you sign my Bible?

[@ThermoMan]

Really interesting. The 80s weather presenters were such nice guys too.

[@43bikeguy]

They are all still alive which is a nice thought

[@-_James_-]

Except for the dog.

[@raver4lyfe16]

That tech is actually very impressive for the 1980s! My dad worked for a large company for 40 years and remember going to visit him at work as a kid in the late 90s and even then they where still using the old black screen green image computers

[@outdoorsy01]

this was genuinely fascinating

[@davidbull7210]

The future arrived in February 85. The COW globe arrived at the same time. Impossible to overstate how much this changed everything.

[@CyclesMcHurtz]

If you want to see something else spectacular with a mouse, look for "The Mother of All Demos" by Douglas Engelbart from 1968

[@davidbull7210]

@@CyclesMcHurtz Yep I've seen bits of that. Incredible for 1968

[@BigAlCapwn]

Remember being able to rotate an image vertically was "mind blowing technology"?

[@georgeholland2934]

Simon Groom was such a likeable presenter; nicely spoken, not patronising. A different era. I remember Goldie the Labrador was his own pet dog too.

[@maj1285]

Their weather symbols which were still used throughout the mid-2000s were remnants of the magnetic board era. I missed those classic symbols, I think they give a more British look.

[@moominmay]

Oh yes of course the weatherman got the forecast completely correct in the rehearsals 😂

[@AliceYobby]

I think he only said “rain turning into snow”, because they had the graphic set up for rain clouds. It was probably a producer who said, let’s not confuse the viewer into thinking those are meant to symbolize snow, this is all new after all

[@danw1374]

'Earlier a lady rang the met office to say that there was a hurricane on the way' Sorry to bring it up again Michael 😂

[@finnmanproductions9240]

Very informative report - well done Blue Peter 1985!

[@stepheng8779]

Yeah all done without needing to be shouty or patronising.

[@johnmartinez7440]

@@stepheng8779 What are you referencing?

[@mbwoods2001]

Remembering Simon Groom and his dog, Goldie, that brings a lot of memories watching Blue Peter

[@ThePorkypete51]

When Goldie had pups

[@video-carl]

Be great to get this level of information in our weather forecasts again

[@AlexDMC]

What a beautiful document of early digital weather. The BBC doesn't get enough recognition here in the USA

[@zx50]

Very interesting how the weather charts, old style, looked back then. How times have changed.

[@KentoKei]

Its quite interesting seeing how people react to computers for the first time

[@DustyCustard]

What a beautiful pair of knockers.

[@unnamedchannel1237]

Liz was a beauty wasn’t she

[@AtheistOrphan]

The Groomster’s greatest moment.

[@caijones156]

Blue Peters child friendly but not foolish acting will always amaze me.

[@version736ha2]

Kids weren't utter morons in those days and most could use a knife to eat rather than to stab

[@caijones156]

@@version736ha2 if your from that period you either prove that is false or that you suffered severe brain damage as a young adult.

[@L-mo]

1987: and a lady in the Isles of Scilly said a hurricane was coming 😂

[@xenotiic8356]

This is so cool to see. I remember seeing these two talk about the CD's introduction in a clip I watched a couple years back! Very entertaining stuff.

[@alinm4844]

CDs? See deez nuts!

[@huwpickrell1209]

Much simpler and clearer than today

[@unknownz1238]

Crazy how this thing that was revolutionary technology that required it’s own software now can be recreated with simply maybe a 5 min work drawing on a Microsoft PowerPoint or google slides

[@davmo72]

That bit at the end. Now I know why my Dad always liked when Janet Ellis was on.

[@Feakre]

I remember this when it was first shown live!

[@commandingjudgedredd1841]

Me too.

[@soupwizard]

2:01 Hey that's an Apple Lisa computer. Not sure if a different computer is generating the color version. Definitely an interesting look at the exact moment of changeover from the old manual weather maps to computer-generated ones!

[@MePeterNicholls]

An out put card will be rendering the colour version

[@chinnyvision]

It's interfaced to a Quantel Paintbox. First one at the BBC.

[@chinnyvision]

No, it's connected to a Quantel Paintbox.

[@tma2001]

I know quite a bit about how it all worked if anyone has any questions.

[@belperite]

@@tma2001 Yes. How was the Apple/Quantel interface done? Did either machine need a custom board or was it using "stock" hardware and over serial or something like that?

[@joebryant5722]

Michael, can you see any storms on your screen???🤣😵‍💫.

[@Doctor180185]

'This clever little box is called a mouse' 😱 my birth year, folks!

[@davedogge2280]

It's like entering The Matrix and Bill Giles is Neo.

[@lewis72]

John Kettley is a weatherman and so is Michael Fish.

[@Iffy]

Classic song!

[@rjjcms1]

And soooooo.......is Ian McCaskill.

[@scobitronmcscobie9965]

And Wincey Willis

[@Notallowed57]

Turns a picture upside-down on computer "Mind blowing technology"

[@StabStabStabStabby]

Let's make it sunny in Stoke-on-Trent. Puts it on Liverpool.

[@kjamison5951]

Two things… Apple Lisa’s being used to generate the basic images in sequence, and, Sophie Ellis-Bexter’s mum, Janet. Not forgetting Bill Giles and Michael Fish, two well-known meteorologists on British TV.

[@robertomoi2044]

Considering its nearly 40 years ago that is very high tech and still pretty impressive for today.

[@ld6433]

Crazy how far the weather has come.. now if it’s raining I can go on my phone and it call tell me how many minutes till it stops and when it’s going to start again.. It’s pretty accurate as well..

[@mike_nelson]

One thing that stands out to me is that the weathermen actually had to compile data and come up with independent predictions based on their research. Then likely rehearse and present their findings. I imagine that nowadays the information on predictions is just a click away on the internet. I'm reminded of the fictional character Jonas from Stargate SG-1, an alien refugee who was blown away by the weather channel and how amazing it was to predict the weather with accuracy.

[@muxpux]

Computers do a lot of the computational heavy lifting, but individual forecasters still comb through the raw data, and compile forecasts based on an areas local geography and tendencies. The problem with computer forecasts is resolution. The computer models see terrain as a 3D model, think an 8bit world like Mario or something. Very blocky. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but small variations in terrain can effect the weather quite a bit. Especially when it comes to things like freezing rain, snow storms, and where thunderstorms are going to develop, as well as larger scale features. Computers are great at large scale features, but humans still need to fuss out details.

[@HarukiYamamoto]

"Can you make him stand on his head?" "Oh! Nice! Mind-blowing!!"

[@kins749]

Apple Lisa and Janet Ellis - 1985 was the best year ever!

[@garyhunt8067]

Brilliant footage. Remember watching this.

[@andypandy9013]

Gosh! A "Mouse". And a "Cursor". What a fascinating modern age we live in!! 🙂

[@darrenclayton8635]

A nice sneaking in of the previously banned “winter drawers on” phrase with a perfectly straight face there.

[@leoleonard1580]

Gosh the UK was really something else back in the late 80s

[@haydenbush]

The fact they are using a Lisa is astonishing

[@8teillumin]

Ooohhh an Apple Lisa!!!!! And then they give us a Quantel Paintbox 😮😮

[@NewRepublicMapper]

Very interesting that they use Apple Lisa

[@AlexBowenPrime]

*manually places a symbol on the map* "It's a bit like Space Invaders"

[@nathansmith8038]

‘This clever little box is called a mouse’😅

[@duncancurtis5971]

Simon Groom one of our fave presenters.

[@laustinspeiss]

So happy to see Apple Lisa’s being used in earnest !

[@KrummyBrinkleJr.]

I miss the good old days when the temperatures hovered around 1000 degrees

[@somethingelse516]

3:07 it would be cool if there was some way to ‘drag and drop’ so he can see the symbol move to the location as he uses the mouse thingy

[@0saintsfan0]

He was about fifty miles north of Stoke-on-Trent

[@davidlister370]

'Mind-blowing technology' we laugh at a comment like that today but back then it must have seemed amazing to see what could be done

[@mupster2]

Love the way Janice snuck in the joke

[@untrust2033]

This is awesome!

[@abramhansen]

A wild Lisa appeared!

[@RIXRADvidz]

Way back in the old days they had magnetic discs with suns and clouds on them that would strobe on television, you didn't see it in person but someone sitting at home watching would see these pulsating symbols on the weather map, when they went electronic such things went into archives and time capsules.

[@brennalynnn]

Lgr needs to review this computer app

[@belperite]

Yes, but he'd need an Apple Lisa and Quantel Paintbox, which are kinda hard to come by ;)

[@swh1386]

Lovely stuff!

[@sts-31]

I never even thought about how an analogue weather report would look before coming across this video.

[@eliotmansfield]

need to tag Dexterslab - he loves any quantel paintbox stuff

[@dronespace]

Love this video

[@hybridflu6-810]

This is so much work 😫 Good job earth people 👏

[@CameronPrescott]

iv'e really been enjoying these, I would imagine these will continue to seem more and more bizarre as time goes on

[@lpil]

Brilliant

[@piercelidseveraltime]

From this day forward my mouse will now be known as the little box

[@markboulton954]

Note the time strap at the top is red in these demos when they ended up blue in the final graphics (with the time on a yellow background for daylight hours).

[@markboulton954]

Exactly the same kit was used for results captions on Grandstand from that time, the only place in the BBC that could do it (John McCririck used to fly across the corridors of Television Centre with teleprinted football results to take them to the Weather Centre to do the graphics for the classified check).

[@ScottiStudios]

4:43 "You can make him stand on his head...mind blowing technology". "Just wait a few years and you will be able to deepfake him and make him sing Taylor Swift." "What?"

[@hoth3875]

This is a great reminder that even the most intuitive User Interface can seem confusing to someone without a technological perspective

[@AdeleiTeillana]

I now have to go find some old weather reports to see more of how they used to do it. I mean I knew they didn't have computers/computer graphics too much earlier than that but I guess I never really thought about what they used to do, lol.

[@fl570]

Pretty cool stuff.

[@chrisking1457]

I'm just glad I avoided that entire computer craze and that the fad finally ended.

[@danielwalker26]

Woah woah woah. Did everyone see that adorable golden retriever? Soooo cute.

[@stevenclloyd]

Bro on the desktop at 1:40 is smashing that left click on the mouse

[@zebedep]

I preferred these graphics to what they use today.

[@superapple4ever]

Love that Lisa.

[@taddersauce3672]

Human invention is brilliant to look back on.

[@argonaut6386]

I just remember having a thing for Janet Ellis as young teen back then she was one of the reasons I watched Blue Peter and she certainty caused a warm front.

[@T.DeCervantez]

“Could I have a go with the mouse, put some symbols there?” It was a simpler time.

[@millenium2003]

Damn we have come a long way

[@DiseaseShaker]

At the same time, the Computer Originated World became the ident for BBC1.

[@jobalisk6649]

Wow, an Apple Lisa

[@matthewtrow5698]

This was _seriously_ advanced for those times. I notice there was no drag and drop on macOS back then - probably a good thing for this video, as that concept even today leaves some people struggling 😉