The second leg of my trip took me away from nature. I decided to go out of my way to visit Steam — the Museum of the Great Western Railway. I am not an extreme railway enthusiast, although I do find railways quite interesting. I only knew that Steam existed when I happened to pass […]
Archive:
Nostalgia
BBC Select
In the early 1990s, the BBC ran a short-lived service called BBC Select. It was designed to deliver highly specialist programming to narrow audiences. The programmes were broadcast after BBC One or BBC Two had stopped broadcasting for the day. This example demonstrates the sort of thing BBC Select did. This is a programme about […]
Grandstand theme tune
Is this the greatest theme tune ever? And have you ever heard the full version of it? I bet many don’t know about the guitar break in the middle! I reckon you could probably tell how old someone is by what pictures they associate the boing with. For me, it is a snooker ball going […]
Scottish Television ident (1962)
Some television presentation is designed to tell you what programmes are coming up. Others might tell you the time. This ident, on the other hand, tells you what country you are in — just in case you found yourself sitting in your front room and suddenly wondering where you are.
BBC Two closedown (1998)
This isn’t even from all that long ago — 1 January 1998 in fact. But you wouldn’t see a closedown like this on BBC Two nowadays. I love that classy clock. Clocks would disappear from BBC Two later that year. It is topped off with an appropriate sting, even if it is a little bit […]
Exploring the Domesday data
I was pretty excited to learn this week about Domesday Reloaded. The Domesday project aimed to take a snapshot of British life in 1986. 25 years on, the BBC are looking to update it to document the changes that have taken place since then. I have been interested in the Domesday project for a while. […]
Welcome home to ITV
The 1979 ITV strike was the longest in the history of British television. It was also the last major strike. When service resumed after ten weeks, this is what viewers saw. With this naff jingle, viewers must have immediately wished that ITV never came back. Following the ten week break, it would be a further […]
The end of 405-line television
I cheated a bit last week, so this week I thought I’d better bring out a proper, genuine gem. This is the last ever broadcast on the 405-line system, on 3 January 1985. To mark the occasion, the BBC brought out a 1938 television set (that would be a Baird Model T18 for you anoraks […]
The Krypton Factor’s ITV regions puzzle
I was excited last week when I discovered that the great Gordon Burns is on Twitter. I used to love watching The Krypton Factor when I was a child. The first thing I thought of was this ITV regions map puzzle. I knew I had to feature it as a television presentation gem of the […]
Grand Prix posters
I recently received this print as a gift. It is a poster advertising the 5th Monaco Grand Prix, held in 1933. Doesn’t it look great? A great deal has changed in the past 78 years. But this is unmistakably Monaco — the exit of the famous tunnel, with the harbour to the left and the […]