BBC Test Card F (1978)

Test Card F is a test card that was created by the BBC and used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programmes were being broadcast, but was the first to be transmitted in colour in the UK and the first to feature a person,[1] and has become an iconic British image and is regularly subject to parody.
The central image on the card shows an eight-year-old girl, Carole Hersee, playing noughts and crosses with a clown doll Bubbles the Clown, surrounded by various greyscales and colour test signals needed to ensure a correct picture. It was first broadcast on 2nd July 1967 (the day after the first colour pictures appeared to the public on television) on BBC2.
The card was developed by a BBC engineer, George Hersee, father of Carole Hersee, the girl in the central image. It was frequently broadcast during downtime on BBC1 until that channel went fully 24 hours in 1997, and on BBC Two until its downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax in 1998, after which it was only seen during engineering work, and was last seen in this role in 1999. Test Card J and Test Card W, which are digitally enhanced and widescreen versions respectively, have replaced it, although they are very infrequently broadcast due to the fact that the BBC now broadcasts BBC News 24 and Ceefax pages on its terrestrial channels during downtime.
This is Test Card F, but has also been called BBC TC and Testcard 1 elsewhere on KZbin.

[@davidv.8655]

I believe Carol kersee the girl in the photo still holds the record for the most hours on TV over 70000 hours

[@israeladesanya4596]

Google's great isn't it?

[@brucedanton3669]

It was Carole Hersee by the way but of course I know what you mean. Yes I too believe that she as Test Card F holds the record as the most seen person on British tv or anywhere else it was shown too. I think that is followed by William Roache the actor who plays Ken Barlow in ITV's Coronation Street, but am not too sure on that one though. Thank you anyway!

[@simonmallett9310]

This IS Great Britain. Legendary.

[@simonmallett9310]

@@brucedanton3669 This will live long in the memory. Carol Hersee & Bubbles the clown. CLASSIC!!!!!!

[@brucedanton3669]

@@simonmallett9310 You are so right of course-thank you too!

[@whp61]

I was a TV Engineer in the 80's. OMG this was invaluable to us.

[@2001KW]

Why though?

[@Dragoneer]

K W Color calibration and lining up shots

[@alleynealisleem9777]

U weird creep!

[@Locutus]

@@alleynealisleem9777 How is it weird???

[@eight8qa592]

@@Locutus look at it lol

[@rhodesyhcfc8712]

Freaked me out this when I was kid

[@sparklywarkly89]

I was born in 1989...and I can't imagine a world without TV which is really worrying...We live in an age of 24 hour broadcasting, so many +1 channels, and TV on demand...The idea that in the 60s and 70s when there were 3 channels that had gaps in scheduled programming shows how much the media has developed...and before anyone says anything...I would like to meet Carole Hersee as much as most other people who have watched this!

[@rainpop3036]

Al until 1983 breakfast was Radio only....and no main news T.V. bulliten until 1pm. (A short mid morning one waa broadcast about 1045am)

[@j0hnf_uk]

Amazing to think that, back then, even when there was supposedly nothing on, there was still something you could relax and listen to. Nowadays, when there's supposedly something on, there nothing worth watching despite having more channels than you can possibly watch in a day.

[@ceefaxbbctv8788]

Absolutely nailed it John. I couldn’t have phrased it better myself!

[@dvidclapperton]

Truly dreadful programmes today. The rot started in 1986. Long live the Test Card and music.

[@pianoman1396]

I remember the test card really well. When I’d get up early to watch cartoons as a kid, the test card would usually be on BBC2. I also remember it being on during some afternoons, as it is in this case. But I can’t remember it ever playing music in the background; all I can remember is a high-pitched tone.

[@nxx99]

For this card, it either emmits that tone, or plays music.

[@BenKellyMusic92]

One of the men with learning difficulties I support absolutely LOVES the test card! I have to put it on my phone for him once a day 🤣

[@brucedanton3669]

And why not indeed too? Thank you anyway!

[@earthluma]

he’s kinda based tho

[@brucedanton3669]

The test card is kind of wonderful compared to what is on now a days though somehow!

[@andrewhudson4623]

This was the best programme on BBC by far

[@mikehudson8884]

I used to watch the test card as a kid because I loved the music. Watching this today is so much better than the awful BBC.

[@mchugho]

Mental 😂

[@amandastill5124]

Even morph and Tony hart was awesome

[@stuartmontgomery1418]

Join the Test Card Circle Mike and you'll hear plenty more 😊

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

​@stuartmontgoyes of course too.mery1418

[@oddities-whatnot]

Its like being in a supermarket in the 1970s!

[@KaydeyRai]

It's weird how so many of us found it so creepy when we were kids - it is pretty unsettling but I can't quite put my finger on why

[@maartenovergaauw8434]

+KaydeyRai exactly my thought

[@lorraineprunty387]

+KaydeyRai Its the malevolent looking doll beside the kid....is my guess

[@leejohnson3209]

I never found it creepy, I always wondered what she was looking at off camera, who won the game and what it all meant...

[@MKIVWWI]

The clown doll, for one big thing. Far more people find clowns creepy than was supposed in the old days. Also the feeling the doll and girl are conspirators in evil, somehow... they're "biding their time" playing Tic-Tac-Toe. (A touch of "Children of the Damned" creepiness?).

[@zeraaa]

i know.....

[@oddities-whatnot]

How can anyone dislike this ? What a splendid piece of enjoyment. Millennials no doubt, forgetting that there WAS life before they were born, and a great life we had indeed in a much better world. Cheers from an old fart

[@WillBoss2004]

I'm a millennial and I think this is better than todays TV.

[@El_Dominar]

HELL YEAH HOSS THOSE MILLENIULS DONT UNDERSTAND GOOD TV!!!!! HELL YAEH BROTHER GOBBLESS

[@voiceofreason162]

Watched Christmas 24 saw the fire interlude and up in a memory popped this little gem. Bedtime.

[@caranook]

I didn’t exist in the 70s or 80s, but I recently rewatched the (brilliant) show life on mars, and the little girl in the picture and the clown toy are in the show as almost horror like characters. They aren’t explicitly ‘scary’, but the girl shows up every now and again and there’s always something eerie about her. I have a feeling that could have been what it felt like seeing this on the telly in the 70s!

[@ceefaxbbctv8788]

This is fantastic. What great times these were. Very many thanks for uploading this beautiful clip!

[@damientrott3058]

Waking up to this in The early hours freaked me out 😂

[@andyc6542]

Anyone else miss the good old days of TV? You could count the number of channels on one hand, families used to sit and watch the same things together, we had variety (seriously, enough of these singing/dancing shows already), and we used to have kids cartoons/magazine shows to look forward to on a Saturday morning. Take me back to my youth, TV nowadays doesn't cut it at all.

[@boleslawpetroski9681]

200 channels and none of them are good. KZbin is nice because I get to choose the schedule.

[@fantasytestcards]

I always equated TV content like jam with the number of hours available being like the slices of bread available. Back then, you'd get a decent layer of jam on a few slices of bread, (channels), but now, with so many slices of bread, i.e. channels available, the amount of jam, (programming), is so thinly spread, that there's hardly any taste, (entertainment value), left. Give us a nice amount of content over a relatively few channels, any day. over 200 channels with absolutely nothing worth watching on any of them.

[@mrnewton86]

Damn right- I remember circling things in the Radio Times, (or other tv listing magazine) our shows/films we wanted to see. Do they even still even publish a Radio Times?!

[@76Heatwave]

Not much

[@ourhandsaretied]

Old man yells at cloud...

[@pianoman1396]

That picture of the girl and the clown doll wasn’t just a random photo; it was quite deliberate. The photo was staged to include all the colours of the TV colour spectrum, which is also found round the side of the testcard. The X on the chalkboard is actually meant to signify the dead centre of the screen - again, placed there quite deliberately.

[@danwoodhouse9290]

wow all this stuff we know now - shame no one told us about this when the test card was in its prime

[@neilpye6089]

The picture is reversed because the girl is left handed

[@dvidclapperton]

The X was nof quite dead centre of the screen at the time. It was slightly off centre to the right. The F was dead centre of ths screen though.

[@drmattathias]

@@LatteWiiU Who said anything about a checkerboard?

[@markshaw270]

@@LatteWiiU noughts and crosses

[@mazzab1970]

The music sounds like something from a 'Carry On' film. It just needs Barabara Windsor to giggle half way through and have Bernard Breslaw shout 'Si--id'. Class!

[@JennyAnnTea]

I used to come downstairs on weekends and this testcard was on, with a countdown timer in the corner counting down to transmission time.

[@stephenjerome4135]

I can still remember being in my early teens when I sometimes fell asleep on the sofa with the TV on late at night and then suddenly being woken up by that dreadfull high pitch tone, that test card picture though, what an iconic image, a great childhood memory. In fact I recently watched a couple of KZbin videos all about test card F and it inspired me to download an image of it on my phone and set as my lock screen image. Strange I know but it was such an iconic piece of TV broadcasting back in the day.

[@alleynealisleem9777]

I remember this, the girl with the funny clown and the beep! Weird memories!😮

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you so much for this-well done of course too!!

[@brucedanton3669]

And the BBC1 clock of old then is nice too surely?!

[@vinto34]

Had the same test card here in new zealand in the early 80s and had left bank 2 by the noveltones on a constant loop playing over it.

[@SankaJonesCreations]

This music is really chill XD

[@2012leatucker]

Bring back television closedowns at end of days broadcast.

[@lorraineprunty387]

yes looking back on it there is something strangely otherworldly about the test card ambiance. Still i loved it then and i love it now...

[@fantasytestcards]

It was a warm fuzzy feelings that, despite the telly not having anything on that you were supposed to be watching, Auntie Beeb was still there giving you a sense of security with lovely relaxing music to kick back and relax to.

[@HelloNewYorkCity]

BEST SHOW EVER PERIOD.

[@alleynealisleem9777]

You dimwit! What have you been takin drugs , alcohol or something fucking worse!

[@sushilnash]

COMPLETELY AGREE! i hated this testcard when i was young, it was terrifying!

[@andrewmyers9982]

Hard to think that in August 1979 this was the only TV available in the entire country between 2pm and 4pm. (ITV were on strike)

[@BruceDanton-br9bw]

That went on to October that year did it not?; BBC1 were showing this; BBC2 at the time were closed down-not even the test card on there-and ITV were indeed alas on strike so then too?!

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

Bbc2 then would close at 11.25am after play school with 5 mins of test card f with tone til 11.30 when they would go off air till around 4.00pm when test cards f or g were shown until around 5.40 when programs started then. In March 1980 the bbc started showing ceefax at times although not till May 1983 did this become the norm. In September that year bbc2 started daytime on two and the turn off ended so too.

[@keirwaterman9313]

This is better than modern tv

[@fantasytestcards]

The irony being that, back then, when there's was nothing on, you could still watch TV and be entertained, whereas nowadays, even when there's something on, you still can't watch it and be entertained!

[@rose-byte]

Its fucking analog.

[@alleynealisleem9777]

What a twat u are!

[@teethmac]

I remember these soundcards when the tv station closed at nite when there was only 3 channels ah good ol days

[@MsMasterLuke]

I remember sneaking down stairs in the early hours on saturday mornings, waiting for the cartoons to come on!

[@charliefoxx81]

lol soo creeeepy - growing up and seein this on tv,, the loud beep that came with it wasn't fun either..

[@alfred_w5941]

Oh yeah! The beep really was annoying. But I love it! I really do!

[@flatcapman]

I don't love it as much as the BOOOOOOO tone

[@arserobinson7118]

It was that horrible high pitched beeping sound when I saw this as a kid too

[@thelindyhopfox]

So you would wake up when you fell asleep so you wouldn't leave the TV on seeing as they got hot pretty quickly if you left them on.

[@wilfridwibblesworth2613]

I saw it one night and the girl was missing & the clown doll had blood dripping around it's mouth because it had eaten her!

[@sirtinycreep]

Brilliant. I remember the Beeb playing 'The Days of the Old School Yard' (by Cat Stevens) while a test card was shown. :D

[@nickcresswell]

This is how dull life was in the 70s! People would sit through this for 15mins whilst waiting for Song's of Praise. Dear God please preserve us!!

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

This was better than thr Church series though really

[@ClaireGarrard]

The 70s were fabulous 😃

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

@@ClaireGarrard indeed so too well for test card f I guess then anyway.

[@und4287]

This was a hybrid approach- the colorbar stripe and ID caption were electronically generated, while the rest came from a slide scanner.

[@danwoodhouse9290]

wouldn't you just love to meet carole Herseeand ask her for a game of noughts and crosses

[@teethmac]

Amazing I want it as my ringtone

[@Hulkerine100]

Lol! I know right? The clown and that scary beeping sound gave me nightmares as a kid, hahaha!

[@john111257]

ya know..this is better than real tv

[@barebarekun161]

Yep,i find a lot of testcard/closedown hours to be very relaxing! This to me is what makes analog TV special,digital is so damn boring and annoying now.

[@RyanSchweitzer77]

Far better--this is the best television programming around, in comparison to today's dreck! And relaxing indeed--not all blaringly-loud-in-your-faceshort-attention-span-obnoxious like television today...!

[@DarrenBonJovi]

More creativity and heart went into this than most modern tv

[@alleynealisleem9777]

Cos your a weird idiot creep!

[@RobertTheDodger654]

When the announcer said "Now BBC1's returning to a Trade Test Transmission", it sounded like he wasn't in avery good mood; in actual fact he almost never was.

[@anonUK]

You try sitting in a booth in BBC TV Centre at 3am...

[@brucedanton3669]

@@anonUK Actually this is 3pm as far as I know-I wonder? Thank you anyway!!

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you. This was at a time-1978 or so-when BBC1 would close down following the For Schools Colleges series at 3.00pm with Test Card F until 3.15pm or so. This was often on a Monday when the repeat of Songs of Praise was on from the night before Sunday. Although it could be any weekday; whereas on weekends it was different and they did not close down at this sort of time.

[@ourhandsaretied]

that episode taught me that obviously im not the only person who was terrified of that testcard

[@alessandrodorsi9800]

Well , many of us were scared of the Rai ( Italy) test card too , and I was among those people

[@800beemer]

Russie wasn't in the mood to be photographed today, but he sends love to all of his fans

[@XShellsX1]

One of the things i'd love to do was go back in time to that period- tv was so different!! This test card look really interesting, yet kind of creepy!!!!!

[@MrHairyNeck]

Love it. Oh happy days. Thanks!

[@qadorr2]

omg a blast from the past

[@Nibster213]

Yep used to freak me out a bit when i was a kid. I remember we would sit and watch the teat card waiting for cartoons to start in the school holiday.

[@djmcc1981]

Miss these days :(

[@alleynealisleem9777]

You're a weirdo!😨

[@eight8qa592]

They would still have this sometimes early morning in the 90's. But no funky music, just silence or beeps and that weird picture.

[@khoigame]

OMG Please make more your amazing

[@DannyFox06]

Carole Hersee and Bubbles.. She still owns that clown... and she has the longest screen time of any person ever.

[@koopa-y9i]

i actually was born way after this and i never live in UK

[@johndoyle486]

The testcard never bothered me as a very young kid, in fact I would sit at home patiently with it on the TV waiting for the cartoons to start. Then on Russell Harty's BBC2 show in November 1982 something I've completely forgotten that involved the test card creeped the living daylights out of me, and I always used to change the channel when it came on after that night. I remember Jack Douglas from the Carry On films being a guest, but I can't remember exactly what that happened on the show that set off my phobia. I was never able to look at the testcard the same way after that.

[@jesusisapisces]

I agree. It's creepy.

[@Adrian.Messenger]

It contains a sinister message which is explained in a video called Hidden Meaning Of Test Card F

[@Adrian.Messenger]

Hersee was really a boy in a wig.

[@annasoriano3984]

Lol jazzy cafe music screamin 70s!!!

[@brucedanton3669]

Of course, whilst BBC1 now shows BBC News overnight as before, BBC2 shows trailers called This Is BBC Two during downtime. Ceefax of course alas ended in October 2012 when the analogue signal was switched off to become all digital too. Thank you anyway!

[@thee4thdoctor]

Seems like so long ago since I was a kiddie in the 70's,and I remember her well! Thankyou! Cheers ; )-

[@stevebreagan7683]

THIS GAVE ME NIGHTMARES

[@utopiaa_1775]

The music here kinda sounds like something Walter Murphy would compose for Family Guy, specifically the intros to the Road To episodes

[@1Bruce93Wayne9]

If the BBC started using this again, it would be the only decent thing they air.

[@Matt571]

The days when Test Card Music was real music and not the bland Ceefax-style music that accompanied the test card in the late 80s and early 90s.

[@RetroGUY77]

Or the tone... Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

[@김승원-l7d]

いま

[@lordilujah]

this is better than the spec you get from the bbc nowadays or maybe not lol

[@harryxyz2982]

Remember this was back when tv was not always on now it’s always on

[@dvidclapperton]

I'm thinking of what Schools and colleges programmes would have been on BBC1 before 3pm back in 1979. The one programme I can vividly remember was Near and Far.

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

Yes so do I too. There are clips of it on you tube by thr way too

[@damodavies9273]

Scariest thing ever on British TV

[@supereddieman397]

You know what’s funny animaniacs recently did this in one of their latest pinky and the brain episodes

[@Barkermush]

I remember this when I was kid, in the early/mid 90's. I'd fall asleep then wake up to the horrible bleep/screaching noice, with a pitcure of this girl and the doll. Sure it use to have a countdown timer, untill the nex t program started? And it wasn't music like this, it was a continued bleep or screech noise iirc.

[@Matt571]

I remember Test Card F well from the late 80s and early 90s - I'm wasn't born until 1979, though and I am too young to remember the trade test transmissions. The music is much better here than the dull Ceefax-style music they had on the test card in the late 80 and early 90s. Like so many kids, I used to find Test Card F very strange and wonder what it was and why the girl never moved!

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

Of. Ourselves so too.

[@bobshields6829]

Strangely relaxing.

[@alleynealisleem9777]

Maybe!?

[@myoldreteacher]

I wish they'd put this back on again instead of News 24!

[@ChrissyboyH44]

thats exactly what Ive been wondering and joking about all day, lol!!!!!!

[@MrTreborallen]

This reminds me of being ill. When I was little and off school aged 7 this is all there was on tv during the day.

[@LordColondy]

Well done the BBC! Another winner!

[@LightLife4]

Didn't know that they used to play a jazz-type number with the sound card cos when I saw it all you heard was a low-pitched hum.

[@zazzsazz_mman]

I don't know how I got here, but this music is so funky I love it.

[@christopherbusby1726]

Would rather watch this than Love Island.!!!

[@mgsfag9]

That is the scariest thing i think i may have ever seen .

[@SantiagoRevecoLepeReborn]

Catchy music in the test card here.

[@adrianollivierre9311]

What is so creepy about this i used to watch this for hours as a kid. I used to think the clown's body was a shiny balloon until now.

[@TomosLeggett]

The clowns name is bubbles.

[@thevampiregirl7529]

@@TomosLeggett And the girl's name is Carol Hersee. Carol made Bubbles from a make-your-own kit.

[@mauricemicklewhite]

A good test card.

[@kanitio7863]

O.O My mum said this came on at 11 pm when tv finished .O.

[@mcdonalds2837]

It just came on at 4:34 am

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

Not sure as tv ended later than that really They ostler showed it in the daytime then if noy at night timrvthpigh

[@rockys201]

These were the days when TV was good, lol

[@alleynealisleem9777]

Fuck u, you must be on hard drugs!

[@wildone106]

This used to give me nightmares when I was a kid

[@Adrian.Messenger]

It was meant to. It was a warning to viewers to beware of the BBC.

[@benjaminclasper9355]

Wow that girl has remained still like that for years just imagine her old body now.

[@davidkelly3822]

It's fantastic to watch the test card why have the BBC stopped the service-?

[@JerryNapper]

Its been years since i've heard this sorta stuff :( and well, 2003 was the last ever time i heard it...

[@Katsumi-Luna]

i remember waking up at like 3:00 am and seeing this, i shat myself!

[@JasonJason210]

Crazy music. I'm sure they used the same song in the Generation Game at the end, with Bruce.

[@justindaly41]

Kids of today will never understand 😂

[@delta_cosmic]

At least the music made it less creepy

[@SnapshotOfASoul]

I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight anyways.

[@GreenerHill]

@JFredUK Thanks you lots. :)

[@kerrytakashi12]

I would have screamed in horror if I turned on the set and saw that strangeness in the early morning hours. In the US, they would play the national anthem then it would just show white static and noise.

[@mgthestrange9098]

Static just reminds me of Poltergeist. 😨

[@DarkAquatix]

0:46 - 0:50 sounds very similar to the Wallace & Gromit theme tune...

[@utopiaa_1775]

Clockwork by Jove, you’re right xD timestamp if y’all need it: 0:46

[@stevebreagan7683]

THIS GAVE ME NIGHTMARES AGHHHHHHHHH

[@koopa-y9i]

Lets pretend i was a kid in the 70s and i loved the music more than bbc1 brodcasting

[@flatcapman]

THANK YOU UK for making a test Pattern that isn't bars and a creepy squeal that gives me migraines

[@Super_Mario128]

in Australia, we had to put up with test patterns that were Synoptic weather charts that gave out loud static sounds

[@flatcapman]

I know I am Australian and I live there. 1000hz gives me migraines but oddly 400hz doesn't. I find 400hz relaxing for some reason

[@ourhandsaretied]

yep exactly the same. it still makes me a tad nervous

[@barrymay4017]

What weirded kids out was the juxtaposition between the insertion of a circular static picture, in amongst abstract linear lines, of a young girl taken from behind her - causing her to turn with an intrigued look - playing OXO (with herself !?) opposite a leering cloth clown whilst being bombarded by what was, to the six year old listening to it, trippy, 100 mph nonsensical jazz…each element of that is a million miles away from the aforementioned…fully weird.

[@Adrian.Messenger]

It's worse than that. Check out a video called Hidden Meaning Of Test Card F

[@kiely4561]

The theme tune is from every single 1970s comedy series lol