Background
In 1966 David Attenborough said: "…We have to remember that 95% of people initially will not be seeing these programmes in colour, they’ll be seeing them in black and white. The shows that BBC2 will be scheduling will be exciting new shows in black and white. They’ll be that much more exciting and newer in colour…"
BBC2 broadcast its first colour pictures from Wimbledon in 1967. By mid 1968, nearly every BBC2 programme was in colour. Six months later, colour came to BBC1.
By 1969, BBC1 and ITV were regularly broadcasting in colour.
Bill Jenkin
Charles Norton on the forum for former BBC staff has asked about the use of colour studios for recording black and white programmes…. I have said that I don’t think it ever happened but if it did they wouldn’t have wheeled in mono cameras from another studio, I certainly don’t remember working in a colour studio on anything which wasn’t destined for a colour tx.
This is the question:
"…As I understand it, the first colour television studios at TV Centre (TC1, TC6, TC7 and TC8) were all in place in time for the launch of BBC1’s colour service in 1969. The other studios at TV Centre remained black-and-white-only facilities for a little longer. However, what happened with the BBC1 programmes that were recorded in a colour equipped studio prior to the launch of the BBC1 colour service? If a studio was equipped for colour recording, would all programmes from that studio have been made in colour as colour videotapes, but then be broadcast in black and white for BBC1? Or were black and white cameras wheeled in from another studio so that the show could be made in black and white? What I’m trying to say is, were supposedly black and white programmes ever actually made in colour and only broadcast in black and white? I don’t mean shows like ‘Morecambe and Wise and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ that were made in colour for BBC 2 and then repeated in black and white for BBC1. I mean programmes that were only ever intended to be black and white but would have been made in colour studios. Does anyone remember how it was done?… "
Dave Lawson
Pres B, in the days before the start of colour TX, was used as a test bed for colour cameras. Rehearsals were used to evaluate the colour system being tested. For transmission the programmes were in black and white, achieved by switching off the colour subcarrier.
Warwick Cross
At the point I joined the engineering team in Pres, I remember Pres B were doing “Late Night Line-Up” on three different cameras – presumably for comparison evaluation – before the formal launch of BBC2 in colour – so we’re probably talking Summer/Autumn 1967. Two were definitely a Pete Scott PC60 and a Marconi Mk VII – I presume the other was an EMI 2001.
Peter Booth
I was the Vision Operator for most of a series called "The First Lady", with Thora Hird (1968/69). At that time only BBC2 was in colour and I remember working with just the luminance tube of the 4 tube Marconi colour cameras. These were not to last long, the EMIs being greatly superior. The one thing the Marconis did well was black and white pictures – probably the best ever seen in studios. I remember a partly coated mirror (or prism) was removed from the optics after the lens. This enabled us to work at half the light level used for colour, reducing the number of shillings in the electric slot!That saving and a limited amount of colour post production availability led to the decision to work in Black and White..I am sure other programmes were made this way – I vaguely remember “Blue Peter” as one.
Bernie Newham
I think it was in the period when there were a number of colour studios but BBC1 was still monochrome. I remember working on a crime series starring an Italian who didn’t speak English that well – can’t remember the name of the show – and that was recorded in TC1 with EMI 2001s in monochrome. It seemed odd at the time.
