The introduction of colour on BBC One and ITV

This weekend marks the 56th anniversary of the start of colour television on BBC One and ITV.

Both main channels were allowed to broadcast in UHF on 625 lines in colour from 15th November 1969.

This date was dictated by the government not the choice of the broadcasters themselves – something that may seem unimaginable now.

BBC Two had been broadcasting in colour for two years by then and was, of course, only on UHF and 625 lines from the start.

A recent post on a TV chatroom asked an interesting question: When did your BBC One region go colour?

The answer is not simple but it’s a story worth telling. 

It is easy to say when each ITV company switched to colour. These were big events for the company locally and often accompanied by huge promotional activity.

The big 5 – Thames, LWT, ATV, Yorkshire and Granada – all switched to colour in November 1969. 

It was not certain until a late stage that the Emley Moore transmitter serving Yorkshire – then a temporary structure after the collapse of the main mast a few months earlier – would be ready for the 15th. 

TV Times had a special colour cover in London, the Midlands and the North West but not Yorkshire.

The other ITV companies across Great Britain and Northern Ireland gradually switched to colour transmission over the next two years with great local fanfare.

It should be remembered that the order had nothing to do with the local companies – it was about the extension of the UHF transmitter network by the BBC and ITA.

But, in general, the large and medium-sized companies were also able to produce a large proportion of their local output in colour at the point of switchover.

STV – recovering from a fire which devastated their main Glasgow studio – still had a colour OB unit and a colour studio in Edinburgh.

Southern moved to a new studio complex which was ready for colour.

But some small companies like Border and Grampian had very limited colour facilities to begin with.

My understanding is that all Border’s programmes remained in black and white. But it was able to show network programmes, programmes played out from film and adverts in colour from 1971. But it had no colour production or colour VT facilities of its own to begin with.

Grampian may have been in a similar situation.

Generally, the launch of ITV in colour was a big event in each region.

ITA trade test transmissions continued to use the monochrome test card D until the local switch to UHF and colour.

TV Times’ regional editions did not routinely mention whether a programme was in colour until colour was actually available in that region.

But, to go back to the original question, it was a different story with BBC One.

BBC One network simply switched to colour on 15th November 1969.

RELATED ARTICLE: Z Cars close and BBC One continuity including programme promotion for Take Three Girls followed by The Andy Williams Show opening (17th November 1969).

VHF viewers across the country were simply watching a monochrome downscaled version of the colour service.

The mirror globe proudly boasted the legend “BBC 1 COLOUR”. Announcers highlighted when programmes remained in black and white.

All editions of Radio Times highlighted BBC One’s colour programmes in listings – in part, presumably, to avoid having to change pages routinely. 

Test Card F was used for network trade test transmissions on BBC One.

The spread of the corporation’s main service in colour did lead to promotional activity in the areas served. But there was no promotion to suggest that, say, BBC South or BBC Scotland itself was switching to colour straight away.

Generally speaking, only the network output was in colour to begin with.

Presumably though the regions had equipment to allow a smooth opt from network colour to local monochrome – it would have looked horrendous had the output suddenly switched to black and white when the region went into circuit 30 seconds or so earlier.

The nations and regions gradually produced more of their opt out and network programmes in colour.

BBC Midlands, as far as I am aware, switched its local output to colour in 1971 when Pebble Mill opened. BBC Scotland’s main studio – often used for prestige drama – was ready for colour but it took a few years before opt out material was routinely in colour.

Across the country, some local BBC output was in monochrome until the mid 70s. A recent Kaleidoscope video showed a black and white Northern Ireland news summary in 1975.

While it may sound strange now to talk about black and white regional output in the 1970s, it should be remembered that a colour TV was an expensive investment for viewers. 

Colour TV sales and rentals only started to take off around 1973.

By then, viewers in all major population centres and all TV regions (other than Channel) had access to three channels in colour. Sets were falling in cost and improving in sophistication. 

The ridiculous negative stories about colour TV – from horrendous hues on badly adjusted sets being seen as the norm, to fire hazards – were being disproved every time someone saw a properly adjusted set in a showroom or a friend’s house.

Colour TV’s spread across the ITV network was a process.

Ultimately on our beloved BBC One (I use the term deliberately after the past week at the corporation) the launch of colour was a national event – even if some of the country couldn’t join the party for some time. 

Footnotes

The vast majority of BBC One evening programmes were broadcast in colour from 15th November 1969.

There were a few exceptions – Z Cars remained in black and white for a few more weeks although other drama was in colour. 

Within a few months, it was very unusual for a new network programme – other than a schools or adult education programme – to be in black and white.

There were conspicuous exceptions.

Blue Peter did not go into colour until September 1970.

There is some ambiguity concerning when the studio presentation of the network portion of Nationwide went into colour. The programme was not billed as a colour programme and a lot of the reports and interviews from the regions were in black and white for many years.

While no colour recordings of Nationwide in this era are believed to exist, the BBC archive holds some film reports from Nationwide in 1969/70 which were in colour. 

Generally when BBC One colour transmissions spread to a new region, the regional output initially stayed in monochrome.

Another Interesting point…

While there were restrictions on full colour transmissions before 15th November 1969, these did not apply to the spread of colour afterwards.

Presumably each main transmitter opened afterwards would be putting out BBC One UHF in full for a week or two before entering official programme service – obviously with the caveat that the service was liable to interruption. 

However I believe it was different on ITV initially – more clearly engineering tests up to the official local launch. Ad breaks were apparently covered with the test card or bars.