Test Card, Ceefax And The Three-Channel Years

Television used to end. There was a point in the evening where it finished, and then there was nothing until the morning.

Here's what the gaps looked like.

Test Card F

• Introduced in 1967 for the start of colour television, and shown for decades whenever there was nothing on.
• The girl is Carole Hersee, daughter of a BBC engineer, who was eight when it was photographed.
• The clown is a toy called Bubbles, and the noughts and crosses board sets the colour and geometry.
• It has been calculated as having more airtime than any other British television image, by an enormous margin.
• It ran with light orchestral music, which is its own distinct memory.

Ceefax and Oracle

• Ceefax launched on the BBC in 1974, the world's first teletext service, and ran until 2012.
• Oracle was the ITV equivalent, replaced by Teletext in 1993.
• Page 302 for football scores, 888 for subtitles, 101 for the index.
• Bamboozle on Teletext, which was a genuinely good quiz.
• The wait - you typed the number and then watched the page counter cycle round to yours.
• Digitiser on Teletext, which quietly influenced a generation of games writers.

Pages from Ceefax

• In the daytime gaps, BBC2 simply broadcast Ceefax pages cycling slowly, with music over the top.
• The music was library instrumental, and people still hunt down the tracks forty years on.
• It filled the hours between schools programming and the evening.
• Nothing else on television has ever been so boring and so fondly remembered.
• It ended when daytime television filled the gaps in the mid-eighties.

Closedown

• A continuity announcer reminding you to switch off at the set, not just the remote.
• The national anthem at the end of the night on BBC1, then a dot, then nothing.
• The high-pitched whine of a set left on with no signal.
• The Epilogue, a short religious reflection, on ITV.
• Twenty-four hour broadcasting arrived properly in the late eighties, and it ended all of this.

The three-channel years

• BBC1, BBC2 and ITV until Channel 4 arrived on 2 November 1982.
• Channel 5 followed in 1997, and the retuning of every video recorder in the country.
• One television in the house, and the argument about what was on it.
• Turning it over meant standing up until the remote became common in the eighties.
• Twenty million people watching the same programme was ordinary rather than remarkable.
• The video recorder, the long play setting, and the tape that had your wedding on one side and Terminator 2 on the other.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• 888 for subtitles, 302 for the scores.
• Test Card F has more airtime than anything else ever broadcast here.
• Television used to stop. People forget that entirely.

Where to shop next

• 70s kids' TV shows
• 80s kids' TV shows
• 90s kids' TV shows
• Saturday morning TV
• After-school TV
• Kids' TV presenters we all remember
• Scariest kids' TV moments
• Christmas TV of the 70s, 80s and 90s
• Bank holiday films that were always on
• Puppets and animation we grew up with
• ITV or BBC childhood
• TV theme tunes quiz
• Adverts we can all still recite
• Soap moments that stopped the country
• Nostalgic quiz questions
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s
• Playground games we all played
• 80s and 90s party ideas
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Birthday cards for kids
• Wedding cards
• Wedding cards guide
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

Who is the girl on the test card?

Carole Hersee, who was eight years old when the photograph was taken in 1967. Her father was a BBC engineer. The clown beside her is a toy called Bubbles.

What was Ceefax?

The BBC's teletext service, launched in 1974 as the first in the world. You typed a three-digit page number and waited for it to come round - 302 for football scores, 888 for subtitles.

What was Pages from Ceefax?

Ceefax pages broadcast slowly on BBC2 during daytime gaps in the schedule, with library music over the top. It is remembered far more fondly than it has any right to be.

When did Channel 4 start?

2 November 1982. Channel 5 followed in 1997, which required people across the country to retune their video recorders.

Do you sell DVDs or TV merchandise?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This is written for the pleasure of remembering it, and the only products on this page are our own cards.