ITV's Journey Through Colour | A Brief History

[@KingSidJames]

These Idents still make my soul sing.

[@mjc8281]

My ex wife was American born in 1966 and she was intrigued by the fact when she moved to the UK that we still sold black and white TVs in the UK 1990s and didn't believe me when I said as a child we had had a B&W into the mid-70s..I will never forget running home from school wanting to watch the Pink Panther show in colour!

[@64bakes]

I was born in the late 80's, and even then as a child growing up in the 90's my first TV in my bedroom was a B&W portable set! It was a Teleton IIRC. Then afterwards my Dad gave me his old set of Panasonic / Technics hifi separates which he bought in the 70's. That came with a tiny TV set the size of a standard hifi separate, with a miniature B&W CRT in it - only probably about 4 or 5 inches wide. It was originally intended as something you use for taping audio from the TV, but I used to use it as my bedroom TV with a portable aerial. Was pretty cool listening to the TV through my Hifi stack in my tiny boy room!

[@GazLfc]

They didn't switch to full colour 15 years before. This video is very misleading on that. You could buy cheap black and white TVs in the US at that time also. Black & white TVs still worked fine until the digital switch over.

[@Richardpd16378]

Large B&W sets stopped being sold by the mid 80s but smaller ones were popular as second sets for a long time after that.

[@beanotownie]

This video is a great insight into the development of colour across ITV (as it was). I worked at Channel TV from 1969 until 2012 and was a transmission controller in 1976 when we went from mono 405 to colour 625 lines - the Channel clock you see on the video was designed by myself (Microgramma Bold text using letraset) - fabulous days!

[@AdamTheMan1993]

How difficult was it to work for Channel TV during the ITV strike of 1979?

[@beanotownie]

Hi, it was quite hard work. We broadcast until around 10.30pm each night, mainly showing a long feature film EVERY night. I worked then producing the programme schedule, and it was hard to keep up with the daily output (fear of running out of time to print and send details to transmission crews). 😅

[@chriscarter7358]

@@beanotownie As a former ITV MCR Engineer, I have wondered whether Channel TV took the same commercials as TVS (before that TSW/Westward) or did you insert your own? I believe that you re-broadcast the off-air signal from the Rowridge transmitter. In terms of our IBA/BT lines schedules you did not feature.

[@AdamTheMan1993]

@@beanotownie I bet you were glad when the strike finally ended and normal services were resumed

[@LostsTVandRadio]

I remember at the time of the introduction of 625 lines in the Channel Islands watching a programme (perhaps it was Tomorrow's World) describing the challenges of receiving a good UHF signal across the channel without it's suffering from co-channel interference. Hats off to the team of engineers for making it happen.

[@RetroHobbyMag]

Watching those idents was like a rewind of my entire life ... what a ride.

[@lordswindon104]

Nothing evokes the 70s more for me than NAH NAH NAH bum bum bum byew byew byew NAH NAH NAH

[@MrDuncl]

I was completely unaware of TWW. To me ITV was always HTV.

[@davidcronan4072]

Evidently, Anglia's silver knight statue wasn't specially made for the company but was bought second-hand by a company executive who saw it in the window of an antique shop.

[@EuropaSman]

That's true; it was a sterling silver trophy bought from Aspreys the jewellers in Bond Street, London and had the Anglia pennon added to the end of the lance.

[@97channel]

Search KZbin for "Anglia at 60, tx: 25/10/19, An Anglia TV Colour Production". 3:30 into the video, I'm betting that the Anglia knight statie is way bigger than you ever thought it was.

[@chrismajor69]

I keep expecting Sale of the Century “Live from Norwich” to come on

[@Althekeys]

I wonder where it is now?

[@97channel]

@@Althekeys It's on display in the ITV Anglia studios reception area, in a glass case. It, appropriately, sits on a revolve.

[@GenialHarryGrout]

Each ITV regions music deserves it's own video. When a programme began you always got the music and logo from the region that produced that programme.

[@bobrew461]

someone has already done that.

[@mikemartin2957]

@@GenialHarryGrout ATV had two regions up to 1968, London on Saturday & Sunday & the Midlands weekdays, but after 1968 ,how is it possible to tell if a programme was made at Elstree or Birmingham? With shows like The Golden Shot , regional news& Crossroads it's fairly obvious.

[@Conrod56]

Remember my dad buying our first colour TV for the 1968 Mexico Olympics. I think colour was only on BBC2 to start with.

[@MrDuncl]

That was very early. We got ours for Princess Anne's wedding.

[@johnking5174]

In Northern Ireland, the availability of colour television was odd - Viewers living within the Belfast transmitter of Ulster Television had colour from September 1970. However, viewers in the second largest city of Northern Ireland, Derry had to wait until 1st December 1975 before their own transmitter was converted to colour for BBC and UTV. Viewers in the south west of Northern Ireland, around Enniskillen had to wait until 1978 before colour television on both BBC and UTV arrived there.

[@chrismajor69]

I didn’t realise that Granada didn’t seem to have an moving intro or if it did I don’t recall. Just watching them all just takes you right back to the 1970s. Each one associated with a favourite program. ATV = Pipkins Anglia= SOC Thames= Raindow HTV= Paint along with Nancy , and many more I can reel them off 😂

[@richardjordansongs]

As a Beatles fan I regularly see (and get annoyed by) comments on the internet criticising BBC1 for its "decision" in December 1967 to broadcast Magical Mystery Tour in black and white rather than in colour. I guarantee that no viewers in 1967 were complaining about it being in black and white as it just wouldn't have been a consideration at the time. Actually, most of the viewer complaints were about the lack of a discernible plot, a fact which holds true in either black and white or colour. In future I might have to direct those critics towards this video with its explanation of how colour television was gradually introduced in the UK. As it happened, Magical Mystery Tour was repeated in colour over on BBC2 a few weeks later in January 1968 but I suspect only a handful of people and their dogs would have been able to get the full benefit from the transmission.

[@HouseflyUK]

We had B&W TV's for ages! I remember when we lived in one of the Brentford Towers (18th floor) we had a TV that had a manual tuning dial and I remember picking up Southern TV loud and clear (we were in West London and had Thames/LWT) and this got me interested in radio waves and how they worked! I used to love that ITV had different regions with a variety of names.

[@g7mzh]

Much of North and West London (and parts of Croydon!) had good reception of Southern from Hannington.

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

Adam, the content you are putting out these days is excellent, I'll never stop saying it, you have a great future as a documentary maker!

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you so much! Glad you've been enjoying the recent stuff!

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

@@AdamMartyn I am thoroughly enjoying it indeed!

[@LostsTVandRadio]

I remember that as late as 1971 some adverts on ATV were still shown in B&W despite the schedule being otherwise fully in colour.

[@roberttobias7739]

Yes-with a blue filter!

[@davidrumming4734]

Key point that in UK, the move to colour was tied to the move from VHF to UHF. Therefore you needed to have a UHF transmitter serving your area, a new UHF aerial, and obviously a new UHF/Colour tv. Yep, long after the launch of colour, Black & white continued broadcasting in legacy VHF (until somewhen in the 80s) and also on the new UHF network. And black & white tvs didn’t suddenly vanish from the shops…..they kept going as a budget option and in the portable market-the latter for some significant time. To bridge multiple situations the new tvs might be faced with during the transition years, tvs would contain dual VHF/UHF tuners.

[@k.voskuyl5775]

And 405 to 625

[@eddiewillers1]

Indeed, the VHF network wasn't switched off until January 1985, IIRC.

[@DeltaJazzUK]

Indeed. I was still watching a black and white portable in my bedsit in the mid 1980s.

[@trevorbrown6654]

If you look at old films showing rooftops, they show houses with H shaped aerial's. The aerials I remember as a child in the 70s & 80s were of a different shape and smaller. Were those H shaped aerials tied in to VHF signals, which is why I don't remember them?

[@davidrumming4734]

@@trevorbrown6654 ahh yes H aerial = VHF tv….uhf had already come in at start of my childhood but, many VHF H type aerials still on rooftops-there’s still a few dotted around here too. Never removed. History repeats, not many people here using freeview now, most on sky/freesat or gone online only-but aerials remain. After UHF went digital especially post full switchover, many thought their aerials were “switched off”

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

16:09 What a treat this was: two minutes of time travel to hear at the end, here at the end . Thank you.

[@rajnirvan3336]

Each region brings back great memories. Whenever I heat ATV reminds me of Family Fortunes

[@ewaf88]

When our very first colour TV arrived in 1970, as the technician tuned it in, the first face that appeared was that of Joe 90

[@tvaq6ch]

It’s so interesting to see how Channel took 7 years to catch up. It must be a relief for the company and the IBA when they are done getting the network colour feed to the islands

[@cheeks6738]

I remember when we had a black and white telly and then my dad got a colour ITT television it was massive and wooden we still only had three channels. Great video well done.

[@DoubleD20s]

I can't be the only one who clearly remembers the trumpet stabs in many of those jingles, but largely because they were somewhat eerie and scary in their intensity. Even now, they almost feel like ghostly echoes from a bygone age.

[@YellowfinGrouper]

I loved seeing all these logos again. The HTV one is one of my favourites. ATV sold a lot to USA so colour was a priority to them and they would shoot videotaped variety shows in both the U.K. and US colour system.

[@MarkAJAgi]

I would imagine a lot of people in the Channel Islands would try to get ITV Southern or a French TV channel up to 1976 as there are no hills or buildings in the sea blocking the signal.

[@davidrumming4734]

That’s an interesting point. I expect many people did try in the VHF era. From what I understand the powers that be installed a massive dish style VHF relay on those islands and rebroadcast on low power to the islands. In addition VHF and UHF never broadcast very far into the English Channel so not to create co-channel interference with services in France….i guess Digital UHF (DTT, Freeview) still doesn’t. Today the islands have a cable feed (from IOW) DTT relay.

[@MrDuncl]

@@davidrumming4734 I'm surprised they didn't use a Microwave link. That was how many TV signals were carried and were the reason for the Post office Tower (there were many others but not as spectacular).

[@markc5111]

That was an awesome video and a great trip down memory lane. The montage at the end was a class idea Adam 😍👍👍👍.

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mmwaashumslowww7167]

Wonderful memories from the days of quality television. Television fascinated me throughout my childhood and by my early teens, I DX'ed regional tv with various aerials during the right weather conditions. Today in 2024, I couldn't give a fig about it and no amount of HD or big screen OLED technologies interest me. I do the memory lane trip on KZbin, regularly watching the old 60s and 70s programs, that I watched all those years ago. Thanks for a brilliant presentation of tv history.

[@MrDuncl]

In the mid 1980s I was into satellite TV. I still reckon Sky started going downhill when moved to Astra. On the plus side the major technical discussion during the interview for the job I still do was on the merits of BSB's MAC transmissions,

[@dannycarter1966]

"From Norwich, it's the quiz of the week."

[@trevorbrown6654]

They also produced 'Roald Dahl's Tale's of the Unexpected', complete with that spooky saxophone music and the silhouette of that woman dancing.

[@mikemartin2957]

​@@trevorbrown6654Anglia did make some terrific nature programmes such as Survival ,as did Southern with Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves.

[@trevorbrown6654]

@@mikemartin2957 Southern also made one of my favourite TV shows as a child, Worzel Gummidge starring Jon Pertwee. I used to watch that at my gran's house.

[@darkstarnh]

@@dannycarter1966 LIVE,from Norwich!

[@Sheffield_Steve]

​​@@darkstarnhIt was never "Live from Norwich" many folk have made that mistake. Even Paul Merton on HIGNFY said "Live from" when Nicholas Parsons guest hosted the show. 😉

[@JimPatience]

Really enjoyed this video. And thanks for putting the idents at the end, really reminiscent of a bygone time that still lives in my head!

[@johnking5174]

Speaking with my Irish family, colour television there took a long time to get going. RTE Radio Telefis Eireann started airing imported shows in colour on film from 1969, but it wouldn't start home produced colour shows until 1971 with the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest being their first big colour broadcast. (BBC had to provide RTE with a colour OB unit, as they didn't have one). RTE only started to convert their TV studios in Dublin to colour from 1972, and it would take a slow four year period. So slow, that their biggest TV studio, Studio 1, home to all their big shows, wasn't converted to colour until as late as 1976.

[@Richardpd16378]

I heard The Late Late Show wasn’t made in colour until 1976 because the studio was the last to be converted, even though it was the most watched show in Ireland.

[@johnking5174]

@@Richardpd16378 That is right. Typical RTE who always think back to front. They started to upgrade their studios to colour around 1972, but didn't start with their largest entertainment studio, Studio 1. This studio was where as you said The Late Late Show was made from, along with many other Irish light entertainment shows, but they decided to upgrade their news studio to colour first, followed by drama and sport. Typical RTE thinking. This is the same RTE who have got into so much mess over the last year, by their exposure of hiding RTE star salaries from annual publication, and their total mishandling of money. RTE recently have had to get the Irish government to bail them out, which annoyed their commercial rival Virgin Media TV, who get no money from the government, but are still forced to do plenty of public service broadcasting remits, which they can't afford.

[@neilmasters9914]

Excellent documentary😊 Just to add that there was (and still is) a great deal of geographical overlap where out of area signals were receivable with high gain aerials and suitable amplifier and so some would be able to receive good colour reception from adjacent area colour uhf transmitters even if their local area had not switched to colour. This was particularly so in days of analogue television as in general signals travelled further and degraded gradually unlike digital which has a cliff-edge fall off. Conversely some communities were stuck with vhf 405 lines black and white reception for many years after switchover due to poor local reception of uhf colour signals only resolved with fill-in local transmitters ( often low power). Keep up the good work.

[@mikewilding3199]

One of the parameters for who got colour first was transmitter coverage vs population. Thus London,The Midlands,The North West and South/West Yorkshire covered the Majority of the population. Locally Yorkshire TV was 16:13 fully equipped for colour from day one of its existence and was converted downwards to 405. Not all of the YTV coverage area was colour only the Emley Moor transmitter. North and East Yorks had to wait for Pontop Pike to be replaced by Bilsdale (Tyne Tees) and Belmont (Anglia) This led into the Trident Tv transmitter debacle. As it stands all three transmitters cover a greater area than expected and it is possible in some areas to get all 3 variations.

[@trevorbrown6654]

You forget though that most early colour TV viewers would have been renting their sets from places like Visionhire or Radio Rentals as the cost of buying the set outright was normally prohibitive. It wasn't really until the late 1970s and early 1980s that the cost of buying one had dropped significantly to allow more people to buy theirs outright. Then those shops started renting out video recorders instead.

[@richardlane2651]

True, I can remember my parents renting a set in the 70s and paying for it by pushing half crown coins in the back. The guy from Rediffusion would visit each week to collect the cash.

[@Richardpd16378]

My family rented a set from Granada until 1984, when we bought one on credit.

[@MrDuncl]

@@Richardpd16378 My Mother rented her set until she went into a care home in 2011. When I offered to buy her one for her 80th Birthday she declined saying "I need a man to look after it". Ironically the first LCD TV she rented quickly developed a fault and had to be swapped for a different one.

[@simongvs]

Thunderbirds was in fact the second Gerry Anderson series to be produced in colour, the first was of course, Stingray in 1964. It was filmed so to take advantage of American television already having made the transfer. I believe when it was announced, the AP Film studios in Slough soon started receiving visitors from the BBC & probably ITV regions to see what equipment would be needed.

[@CM73878]

Indeed Sir Lew Grade of ATV funded the acquisition of high-quality film cameras by AP Films to produce the show in colour. Fireball XL5 had been a hit on NBC in the States and they hoped the move to colour would ensure Stingray would be too. Alas, it wasn’t as successful.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

We got our first colour tv in December 1983. From then on life was so much better.

[@antster1983]

Not only by ITV region, but also by transmitter! 1969 ==== 15th November - Crystal Palace (Thames/LWT), Sutton Coldfield (ATV), Emley Moor (Yorkshire) and Winter Hill (Granada) 13th December - Black Hill (Scottish), Rowridge & Dover (both Southern) 1970 ==== 28th February - Waltham (ATV) 6th April - Wenvoe (HTV Cymru Wales) 30th May - Mendip (HTV West) 15th June - Oxford (ATV) 17th July - Pontop Pike (Tyne Tees) 14th September - Durris (Ulster) 1st October - Tacolneston (Anglia) 18th November - Sudbury (Anglia) 1971 ==== 18th January - Sandy Heath (Anglia) 15th March - Bilsdale (Tyne Tees) 22nd May - Caradon Hill & Redruth (both Westward) 24th May - Belmont (Anglia - transferred to Yorkshire on 30th July 1974) 19th July - Durris (Grampian) 2nd August - Pendle Forest (Granada - high power relay of Winter Hill, the first high power relay to open) 1st September - Caldbeck (Border) 13th September - Stockland Hill (Westward) 1st November - Hannington & Heathfield (both Southern) 27th September - Craigkelly (Scottish) 1972 ==== 1st March - Selkirk (Border) 30th September - Angus (Grampian) 1st December - Darvel (Scottish) 18th September - Midhurst (Southern) 1973 ==== 26th February - Ridge Hill (ATV) 19th March - Beacon Hill (Westward) 7th May - Blaen-plwyf (HTV Cymru Wales) 21st May - Carmel (HTV Cymru Wales) 11th June - Moel-y-Parc (HTV Cymru Wales) 16th August - Preseli (HTV Cymru Wales) 6th September - Llanddona (HTV Cymru Wales) 8th October - Rosemarkie (Grampian) 5th November - Huntshaw Cross (Westward) 24th December - Rumster Forest (Grampian) 1974 ==== 25th February - Bluebell Hill (Thames/LWT - switched to TVS South East on 1st January 1982) 19th August - Chatton (Tyne Tees) 28th October - Knock More (Grampian) 1975 ==== 1st December - Limavady (Ulster) 19th December - Keelylang Hill (Grampian) 22nd December - The Wrekin (ATV - the last mainland main UHF TX to go colour) 1976 ==== 11th June - Torosay (Scottish) 26th July - Fremont Point (Channel - the last ITV company to broadcast in colour) 30th July - Eitshal (Grampian) 24th December - Bressay (Grampian) 1978 ==== 6th October - Brougher Mountain (Ulster)

[@MrDuncl]

Interesting to see Rowridge at the top of the list. The same area couldn't see the 1953 Coronation as there wasn't a transmitter down here.

[@chathamabs2011]

Fantastic video thank you. Nostalgia, factual and really informative. Many things today we take for granted.

[@grantm902]

We had never seen colour in Scotland prior to the advent of colour TV. Not even in real life.

[@NathanEllisBodi]

Must have been mad, all the council fellas running around on overtime painting everything 😊

[@MrDuncl]

LOL. That reminds me of the Goodies episode where Bill Oddie decides to make a Black and White movie.

[@fattomandeibu]

STV should really be no surprise as it covered Edinburgh and Glasgow.

[@colin_a]

I would love to see some of the archives from Southern TV... Does anything like that exist?

[@mikemartin2957]

I think most of the surviving video taped programmes seems to be from quite late on in Southern s archives, from say; 1978 to 1981 most stuff prior to this is incomplete or partial episodes. It's a shame, as they made good drama & kids programmes. Out of Town which ran from 1959 to 81 is an example, as it seems only 16mm film inserts survive.

[@DMiddleton-bj5wc]

Actually b&w survived well into the 70s, with b&w continuity in-between colour programmes ( as was the case with Border) & some b&w reports even on the main news. There was also an edition of Blue Peter ( I think in 1974) that was in b&w. That was all outside of the colour strike on ITV in the early 70s. ATV had a B&W version of zoom 2 which was shorter than the colour one for those programmes still in black & white after their main changeover in 1969.

[@highpath4776]

I made a Colour TV in 1969, by sellotaping the transparent wrappers from Quality Street to the front glass of the tube. I think our first colour TV was got when the Black and White one gave up, probably a Fidelity one from Tempo electrical warehouses, even that was troublesome. Indeed the licence fee might have put mum off getting one. Nan's set was so old it was Sepia at White. ( but did run on 405 lines ) I wish we had kept it - enough valves and decent size speaker to make a guitar Amp out of it If I had thought

[@brendancasey-rz5ix]

I used to play my nes through a black and white TV super Mario bros 3

[@MarkAJAgi]

My Grandad made one before then. At the end of the war there where shops called Army Surplus Shops. They sold stuff the army no longer needed. Grandad bought a cathode-ray tube that was used for radar and made a telly with a green and black screen.

[@bobrew461]

dunno if you recall the episode of Coronation Street (as it was called) when Stan or Eddie Yates brought home a sheet of coloured acetate and then stuck it on their telly, and proclaimed to Hilda that they now had a colour set. :-0

[@reddwarfer999]

@@bobrew461 It still is called 'Coronation Street' actually.

[@MrDuncl]

Around here Tempo came and went quite quickly. We had Tempo, Comet, and another electrical place in the same small retail park. Today you couldn't buy a TV in that retail park.

[@zetametallic]

I was born in 1976 and I love this channel so thought I'd add a few random nuggets of info. When returning from Plymouth on the train in Feb 1992, saw two giant billboards at Taunton station next to each other; one advertising TSW and the other HTV West. Bizarre!😂 My first experience of Westwood was in March 1980, seeing and hearing that galleon whilst the afternoon sun glinted into the room left me in awe; especially when all we had was crappy Granada back home. My dad lived in the Channel Islands (Alderney- I have family there still) just prior to SABRE with a pair of mice (unintended wild pets) but yeah, he said in the TV workshop the engineers would be turning the aerial on the pole to get the better reception of either Stockland Hill or another one. Reception would be wiped out over the sea path progressively. When i went in 1979, i visited during the ITV strike and my parents were fascinated to see Channel still on air.

[@ColinGrimshaw]

If you lived in London (and I don't know about other regions) you were able to get a glimpse of ITV in colour well before the November 1969 launch date. The UHF Crystal Palace transmitter was already on air by the summer and showing mostly test card F (ITV version). However, on the Autumn lead-up to colour launch you could get some programmes in colour. A example would be something like Opportunity Knocks or Benny Hill which were all from Thames TV. Clearly they were already working and recording in colour, all of which were being shown on 405lines in B&W. But, if you tuned to UHF and waited....the test card would just switch and the current 405 line programme would appear in colour on 625 lines. At the end it would simply cut off and the test card would return. This happened with numerous Thames programmes leading up to November 1969. There was no continuity, it was hard switch over and then switch off again. Don't recall this happening with London Weekend. Exciting times in the world of television.

[@CulturePhilter]

As late as the very early 1990s I, as a small child, watched SOME tv in black and white because although our family Tv in living room was color I had an old hand-me-down black and white set in my bedroom. It had a actual dial you had to turn each time you wanted to tune into a different channel. 😄

[@helenaskew4851]

Anglia TV gave back childhood memories. Thankyou for this video

[@AdamMartyn]

My pleasure!

[@LostsTVandRadio]

There was a commercial imperative for most regions to get their colour services up and running because a lot of people living in overlapping regions would choose the first ITV company to go into colour for their area. For example Gloucester could receive HTV and ATV, and Peterborough could receive not only Anglia, but ATV and Yorkshire too.

[@steeviebops]

I have one of the small TVs that's on the desk at Channel TV at 13:02. It's a Sony 9-90UB. Dual standard 405/625.

[@THEOLDMOVIESHACK]

As kids, we covered the screen of our black and white TV with the cellophane from a Lucozade bottle pretending we had colour TV

[@Dave5400]

I feel like nobody ever talks about the idents for the broadcast production companies. They're so regal with short motifs of music that anyone of a certain era (or anyone who likes watching old TV programmes today) would recognise. Most have a very stately theme that suits the style of old UK TV so well. The exception of course was Southern with its calming medieval lute!

[@davidbrooks187]

We got a colour TV in the early 70s when I was very young. I can remember watching horse racing on a Saturday and the vivid green colour of the grass on the TV was amazing. I had a black-and-white TV in my bedroom from the late 70s into the mid 80s. Watching snooker (pot black) was always great 👍

[@hatthewmartley]

I was born in 1987 and my childhood TV in my bedroom was a small, black and white portable, up until I was about 10. I played all my Mega Drive games on that thing. It was great. The volume wheel doubled up as the power switch but it was broke, so I had to turn it off at the wall. No remote of course. Wish I still had it!

[@ladyi7609]

This is such a fascinating video to watch because it makes me keenly aware of the giant gulf of differences between life here in the U.S. and over in the UK. My parents grew up in a very poor neighborhood where there was maybe a couple of TVs for the entire 'hood by 1955, but by the early sixties (a time in which my mother was a high school student) everyone had a family black & white TV and by the time my parents had gotten married and settled into their own home in 1970 everyone could afford at least one color television per household. Even my very first television, a hand me down portable TV equipped with just knobs and dials I was given as a small child in 1989, was a color TV. It's so wild to me that even regular non-poor people in the UK couldn't watch color TV at the same time my parents and THEIR parents were being entertained by Archie and Edith Bunker.

[@therealyogibear2k225]

I can't remember when we got our first colour tv, but, i do remember my aunt being a very late adopter because she couldn't afford the license fee for colour. I thunk it wasn't until 1985 she got her first colour set. I would love too see a video on the licence fee, if you are able to do one. This is a Very Interesting video. Thanks for making it.

[@darkstarnh]

As a sound engineer for HTV Wales in the early 80s I was involved in the transision to stereo sound. It was a similar story.

[@fattomandeibu]

According to my dad, in our area(rural North Northumberland, with reception of both Tyne Tees and Border until Channel 4 launched, bumping Tyne Tees off, then replaced Border with Tyne Tees in 2002) most folks almost immediately switched to colour since most sets were rented and they simply upgraded their rental. I figured that'd actually have been pretty common everywhere.

[@radiotracks7865]

I remember reading in the Evening Chronicle about the opening of a relay station in 1979, mentioning the area could only receive the VHF service that's going to be, "Phased Out Soon". I don't recall which area, might have been Rothbury?

[@phill6859]

My parents were never rich enough to rent a TV. They bought each one, which lasted about ten years each. You pay the cost of a rental TV after two years. Of course you miss out on new features. I'm still rocking my 16 year old 1080p tv

[@fattomandeibu]

@@phill6859 Umm... most folks rented a TV because they could never afford to buy one, so what you're saying makes no sense. I remember my Grandad's, as he still rented his TVs well into the '90s it had a box on the back and you had to put 50p coins into it just to get it to turn on.

[@fattomandeibu]

@@radiotracks7865 No idea on this one, BTW, was before I was born and am from right up at walking distance from Berwick, so not quite my area. I do remember my dad saying in those days to get TV you had to have a box in your living room with a dial on it to change channel, as at the time, and coincidentally now are again since the digital switchover, were in an area with no reception, and the TV was line fed from a giant antenna on a hill.

[@LostsTVandRadio]

It was strange to visit the Channel Islands in the early to mid seventies and to find that they still only had black and white 405 line BBC1 and ITV services ... TV set manufacturers still had to make provision for this of course. (Admittedly a few people received colour TV from France if they had SECAM sets.)

[@stickytapenrust6869]

08:50 - the same is true of Northern Ireland and Wales too. The last main UHF transmitter to open was Brougher Mountain, bringing colour to south-west Northern Ireland, opening in October 1978!!!

[@radiotracks7865]

Yes, indeed. I used to work with someone from that area who said she still watched in black and white well into 1978. They could also receive RTE1, which also provided a 405-line service in some areas. When 625-lines colour came to their area, they gained BBC 2 but lost RTE on getting a colour set.

[@steeviebops]

@@radiotracks7865 RTE's main 405-line transmitters at Kippure and Truskmore closed in 1978 anyway. Although some relays in north-east Donegal carried on until 1982. How they got the signal to them, I've no idea.

[@andyhame6685]

Unfortunately that was a result of the Troubles during that era. A BBC Tranmsitter team were the victims of a bomb on the way to the Brougher Mountain site which delayed plans.

[@micrashed]

Ah, I remember most of those colour idents - our first colour TV arrived in 1978 - a Murphy that I seem to remember used to break down once a year.

[@FernandsLiveShowShow]

A brilliant and incredibly fascinating video - something I've read about many a time but seeing it in, aptly, visual form is fab. Interesting how idents of the time really capture that point in time/history and in a way reflect attitudes to TV then too. Must have been all the identical compilations watched as a kid but that HTV one's really unlocked a memory! 😄

[@eddiewillers1]

Surprisingly, you never mentioned that Lew Grade (head of Associated Television - ATV) had wanted colour from the very beginning of ITV, using a modified version of the American NTSC system. Predictably, the government wouldn't allow it; probably seeing Grade as some sort of parvenu upstart.

[@michaeldavison9761]

Probably just as well it was rejected. NTSC and 1950's electronics wasn't ideal and 405 lines was becoming a world outlier. The Telefunken PAL development getting over NTSC's main problems was the way to go at 625 lines and UHF.

[@MrDuncl]

NTSC = Never The Same Color. A 1960s book I have explains the system in detail but then concludes "Blue Grass and Green skies are far too common and it might need a completely new system before colour TV becomes viable"

[@edwardburek1717]

Another terrific documentary. It's good to see those idents again, and the Yorkshire one is quite impressive - although I think it might be a Dave Jeffery creation unless I'm very much mistaken. But nothing - and I mean absolutely NOTHING - can top ATV's Zoom 2.

[@radiotracks7865]

I remember being fascinated by the animated YTV idents. I was disappointed when it was replaced by the still caption version.

[@peterbarker6249]

My favourite has always been the HTV "aerial "one

[@rajnirvan3336]

Loved regional ITV. I live in London and would always look forward to the handover from Thames to LWT. Every region always brings back a memory of a show eg HTV was Robin Of Sherwood

[@benisrood]

The hooded man!

[@andyhame6685]

You didn't mention ITN, although there was footage from them. I think they were colour from 15/9/69 too from their new studios in Wells Street. One ITV company that didn't make it as far as 1969 was the only one to go bust, Wales (West and North) Television or Teledu Cymru. That was taken over by TWW in 1964.

[@blueswingdown]

here's some stuff i researched lol: - the Trident Television company between Tyne Tees/Yorkshire eventually took over the two (they almost renamed them Trident Tyne-Tees and Trident Yorkshire). they later had to de-merge, though Trident continued to hold minority shares for a time. they eventually merged with Grand Metropolitan, who in turn eventually merged with Guinness plc to form Diageo. (Yorkshire and Tyne Tees later merged again in 1992, lasting until they were both acquired by Granada in 1997) - Westward, Border, Grampian, and Channel were unaffected by the infamous 1970-1971 color strike, since they obviously hadn't changed into colour by the time it occured, which pretty much meant they didn't notice much of a difference seeing Valerie Barlow's execution in monochrome (look it up)

[@jgcracknell]

There also had to be upgrades to the distribution network. For Granada, Yorks, LWT/Thames it was all just one transmitter. For those like Anglia they had to upgrade their SHF links to Belmont and Sandy. Well the ITA had to do that, so they were beholden to them. There were also those transmitters that were reliant on off air reception. Colour didn't come to the Shetlands until 1976 Grampian and 1977 BBC as there was no UHF link. A midpoint at Fair Isle had to be established. There were other major technical issues such as getting a colour signal from Rosemarkie/Inverness to Skye and the Outer Hebridies through loads of relays across Scotland.

[@DeltaJazzUK]

My family didn't get a colour set until 1975 because we had to wait for the old set to conk out, and they were built to last in those days.

[@davidcronan4072]

To offset the high purchase cost of a new colour set, many people (me included) used to rent our sets. Both local shops and national chains, such as Granada Rentals, would offer this service.

[@stephenholland5930]

We finally upgraded to a Baird colour set from Radio Rentals in summer '78, just in time for the World Cup.

[@YeOldeFootballChannel]

I love football, and I have a few more details about that: London Weekend's The Big Match was already recorded (not shown) in colour since October. Granada waited until January 1970 to broadcast their matches in colour. As for Anglia, they had colour in 1970, but they decided to wait until the 1971-72 season for its Match of the Week to be in colour.

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

Whereas all regions had some colour service by the end of July 1976, there were areas without, as transmitters were still awaited. Grampian (along with BBC services) did not commence colour service in the Shetlands until December 1976, and this too needed SABRE to make it work, at a special repeater station on Fair Isle, powered by a generator. Much of County Fermanagh had to wait until 1978 for the opening of the Brougher Mountain transmitter. Furthermore, there still remained some areas beyond the reach of 625 lines, with some losing television altogether for a period after 405 line service ended. Nevertheless, this was an impressive rollout, considering all the factors involved.

[@IainDavies-z2l]

ITV were not happy with 625 colour, they wanted to transmit colour on 405 lines. As they could use their existing transmitters. They had experimented with NTSC on 405 lines similar to the BBCs transmissions in the 1950s. TWW had recorded a lot in colour ready for the start of colour but never saw the day as they lost to HTV.

[@jacklane6076]

Thanks for posting this…Exciting times for us back in the day, unlike today’s World, where everything is just taken for granted😐!

[@Althekeys]

I wonder whether it was just because of financial input but as soon as you heard either the Thames or LWT ident before a programme you knew you were in for a visual sparkly treat!

[@martinhughes2549]

Remember that 625 PAL Colour on UHF needed a vast number of main transmitters, then many relay transmitters. In March 1974 only 79% of the Welsh population could get a UHF signal. In fact, on that date 6% of Welsh homes couldnt get a 405 VHF signal for HTV! 3% could not get a BBC1 405 VHF signal. It took another 20 years to get full coverage and provide a Welsh service to parts of Flintshire. The launch of the colour service of HTV was only at the main Wenvoe transmitter in April 1970 Mendip launched soon after, but it took till 1973 for transmitters at Llandonna, Moel Y Parc,Carmel, etc to start broadcasting BBC1 &HTV in Colour ( some if these tranmitters already broadcast BBC2 in Colour before 1973)

[@radiotracks7865]

Even at the time of the closure of the 405-line service, they were still pockets of Wales that were unable to receive UHF.!

[@MrDuncl]

Just in time for DTH satellite TV to become viable.

[@nicholaskalogris9985]

Great insight on the UK’s Color Television History!

[@loftlegacy]

Fascinating video and a bit before my time. I do remember all of these idents as a kid and think local franchises were so much better with some fantastic programming and a real sense of pride. I’m in the superior franchise region, Granadaland ⬆️ G

[@thefrecklepuny]

Where else would anyone get such historically important titbits? Well done for this video!

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you! ✨️

[@centrevezgaming4862]

In the original Ulster television logo each pattern represents locations around that region according to Bob the fish productions for his in the face of ITV documentary series.

[@RadioSix]

No. On its Opening Day, Ulster explained the logo was a representation of an oscilloscope trace.

[@stephenhall6595]

I was living in the Midlands at the time and we got Colour in 1969 of course however I recall being on Holiday in Cornwall in early 1971 just before Westward went colour and I recall seeing the old Monochrome Test Card D for the last time.

[@goodiesguy]

1:18 Benny with his debut on Thames in Colour, other than Coro Street, that was the BIG colour debut at Wednesday 8pm on the 19th November. It also had the debut of his now famous theme tune and trademark chase with 'Yakety Sax'.

[@TUTOPA1]

Is it worth doing a video about the pre-colour test programmes that were made? Public Eyes made a test colour episode before the launch.

[@LostsTVandRadio]

What on earth is that machine with a carousel and cartridges at 12:14 ?

[@ephemeralfilm]

It's a cartridge player for adverts and promos. Each cartridge is a separate advert.

[@LostsTVandRadio]

@@ephemeralfilm Ah - thank you!

[@aston-s]

I miss ITV being various different brands

[@igolfjtweetler4097]

My gran had a big colour tv in the early 70s. Was like Dorothy stepping into Oz vs our black and white at home. Didn't get a colour one until around 78 and then it was radio rentals. Single parent family by then so lucky to even get that. I can also remember the first vcr in the late 70s. Was a revelation also watching an episode of Edward and Mrs Simpson from a tape.

[@MrDuncl]

Late 1970s was early to get a VCR. I bought by first exactly forty years ago in 1984. Lasky's were advertising Fisher top loaders in their boxing day sale for the bargain price of £299 but by the time I got there at 11:00AM they had sold out. I ended up buying a Mitsubishi in Rumbelow's for £340.

[@BenceVass11]

2:37 “And Yorkshire… well… broadcasting in Yorkshire” Great video alltogether

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@martinhughes2549]

.....and when they got the Belmont transmitter in 1974, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk too

[@michaeldavison9761]

Yorkshire TV didn't have the best of starts into colour service as the 1265ft mast had collapsed in early 1969. This upset all TV services of course except BBC1 405lines from Holme Moss. Temporary masts served a limited area for all the 625line colour services until the 1080ft tower was completed.

[@Nostalgic80s-nd3qb]

Really interesting to see how ITV’s journey to get colour went. Fascinating video. 👌

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@spencer19731]

You should do a feature on the dates when Itv went 24 hours . I remember as a 15 year old being really fed up that Thames had 24 hours and the ITN news at 5an when TVS was still asleep 😆

[@yorkie984]

It was not only down to the speed of investment by the ITV franchisees which led to a staggered approach to the colour rollout, it was also the huge undertaking the ITA/IBA had to complete to upgrade all of the transmitters, network interconnections and control rooms on their side and this could not have all been done in one go, unless they carried out all of the work but left everything in monochrome until they had a big switch-on day (possibly excluding Channel TV). The digital rollout took a great deal longer to achieve although I suspect that the 625 network which was already broadcasting in mono only to begin with, was colour ready in most cases and this may have helped speed up the rollout of colour.

[@absinthedude]

My early childhood Saturday mornings often consisted of watching the Anglia knight rotate on it's turntable while waiting for programming to start.

[@CFNTL2]

Channel tv might be the last itv region to attain colour but apparently they’re not the last PLACE as according to Wikipedia the Brougher Mountain transmitting station of UTV didn’t get colour until october 1978.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

October 78, IIRC.

[@CFNTL2]

Thanks ​@@stickytapenrust6869 I redated it

[@radiotracks7865]

That was the last of the main stations. Relay transmitters were still needed in many areas. I recall reading about a relay opening in 1979 in the Tyne Tees region which previously could only receive a 405-line service. Some isolated spots, mostly in Wales, still couldn't receive 625-line colour at the time the 405-line service had ended 😮.

[@TheGerkuman]

​@@radiotracks7865if you watch the old IBA technical announcements, then you can see that they were still having to make relays into the 80's.

[@user-cvbnm]

Channel is Still last because that is about relay transmitters. the last monochrome transmitters shut down forever in 1985

[@channelzero2252]

TV launching in Australia has a similar story. Although most of the state capitals had a TV service in time for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, some smaller towns - including Territory capital city Darwin - didn't get television until 1971! Also, our transition to full time colour did not occour until 1975, despite the fact that we had been broadcasting with the PAL system the entire time. The article "Television in Australia" on Wikipedia has a great summary of it all, although, unfortunately, I cannot suggest anywhere for better detail.

[@AdamMartyn]

I did a whole video talking about Australia's transition to colour TV! If you look in the AMTV Documentaries playlist you'll find it there!

[@channelzero2252]

@@AdamMartyn Oh, I must have scrolled right past it. I've been doing that since the video rental store days 🙄 Thank you! 😁

[@russellhunter8378]

Interesting and well researched. I always thought that ITV colour was rolled out simultaneously. Liked the idents roll out at the end, did Ulster have no music with it's ident or was that a one off?

[@CricketEngland]

Don’t forget the Colour TV license was also more expensive than one for B&W televisions and therefore most people didn’t get a colour TV until the price became that same.

[@kinolibby6580]

The black and white licence was still on the go when I set off for university in 2004 with my aunt's old black and white portable T V. It was cheaper than the colour licence so I don't think many people were really factoring in the cost of the licence when they decided to make the switch or not. Mind you my Granny was always furious when they showed classic black and white films on the telly 'is this what I pay my colour licence for?!'

[@stepheng8779]

​@@kinolibby6580It's also why back then a lot of people had Dalmatian dogs as the licences were cheaper 😉

[@alexbennett7018]

The price never became the Same today a black and white tv licence is £57 while colour is £169.50.

[@CricketEngland]

@@alexbennett7018 well that’s still the man factor why so many households took longer to get colour TV’s

[@alexbennett7018]

The TV license still has a black and white option intact there are still 4000 black and white tv licenses issued every year.

[@nepalball2711]

HELP THIS BRINGS ME BACK 2020 MEMORIES

[@johnking5174]

Channel Islands weren't really affected by the 1973/74 strikes in mainland Britain. Powercuts didn't affect them, but what did was the British government imposing an early close down of 10.30pm each night from 17th to 23rd December 1973, lifted for the Christmas break, but reimposed from 5th January 1974 and continued until 8th February 1974. This did cause Channel TV damage, as Channel usually closed down most nights after midnight, so they lost some ad revenue.

[@stevedickson5853]

Yorkshire , HTV , Thames, LWT, ATV, Tyne Tees , and Anglia's signature tunes all sounded particularly good

[@DraigBlackCat]

Interesting. Among the things missing for the programme were the actual cost of buying colour and monochrome TV vs average wages and the cost of TV Licences for colour vs monochrome. We got our first colour TV in 1971 but it was rented and payment was via a coin fed meter on the back of the set. Renting was a popular option as the TVs of the time weren't that reliable and you could change sets when you wanted. Here in NE Wales, at the start of ITV colour service the reception was quite patchy to say the least. My parents lived on Deeside and couldn’t get Harlech but could get Granada's signal from Winter Hill, yet my sister lived only 3½ miles away to the SE, in Broughton, and could receive Granada, HTV and ATV. Another relative lived in the next street to us, only ¼mile away but could receive both HTV and Granada. To cap this off, my brother lived in a bedsit at New Brighton on The Wirral. He couldn’t receive Granada but could get HTV.

[@marvy3022]

Nice video. Suggestion, you should do a video on widescreen television and HDTV. The UK were pioneers in widescreen television but it took a few more years for HDTV to become the norm.

[@CricketEngland]

Southern TV lost its franchise in 1982 to TVS (Television South) who then lost the Franchise to Meridian 11 years later who still sort of run it today hosting the regional new and weather in the South

[@markhindmarsh2811]

My two favourite opening logos was Thames (I wanted to visit London so much as a child) and Anglia "From Norwich its the sale of the century" Used to watch Derek Batey snuggled into my grandad after a bath and I could smell the pipe tobacco on his clothes. I also remember when colour tv became more prevalent, the older folk would have the colour turned up to the max every face was a hazy orange. Happy days

[@reddwarfer999]

Imagine what Trump would look like on a set with the colour turned full up!

[@markhindmarsh2811]

@reddwarfer999 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@EuropaSman]

Would be good to see a follow-up on the BBC regions' transition to colour. I have a childhood memory of an edition of Look East in the mid 1970s that Ian Masters presented from the grounds of the studios St Catherine's Close, with OB trucks in shot. I think it was a special edition of Look East to celebrate BBC East's change over to colour; the colour OB equipment was being used temporarily until the permanent colour equipment was installed. Up until then, I believe the regional opt-out was in black & white. My mum & dad worked at Pye's TV factory in Lowestoft so we had a colour from 1970. I expect my dad bought the set in time for Anglia going colour.

[@andyhame6685]

I remember on Midlands Today - which was in colour from Birmingham - having a feature with the Lord Mayor of Nottingham pulling a big (fake) lever to switch the Nottingham studio to colour working. Previously all inserts from the East Midlands were in B&W.

[@garrycowan4394]

It was definitely not until the 80's until my family could afford a colour tv

[@richardgordon2098]

Although Border TV started colour transmissions in 1971, local studio-based programmes were in black and white until August 1973....and continuity was monochrome for a good while after that. They could screen film based material like adverts, series like The Persuaders and feature films in colour. The first networked series of Mr and Mrs with Derek Batey was a co-production with Tyne Tees and recorded in Newcastle because Border didn't have colour cameras until the late sunmer of '73.

[@martinhughes2549]

@@richardgordon2098 Border had Monochrome in vision continuity till spring 1979.

[@k.voskuyl5775]

reminds of schools IVC being in b&w in the Netherlands until early 80's