Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

Reading the 'Missing....and Found column in last Saturday's Daily Mail, aline caught my eye. The line in question is 'Watching England beat West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final on Derek's colour TV'(in Kingston upon Thames ) Surely the writer's memory is at fault here, because, unless I'm mistaken Colour TV Broadcasts didn't start in the UK until mid 1968.

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

You are correct as colour started on BBC2 only with I think Wimbledon in 1968.

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

Colour started on BBC2 in 1967. I believe Wimbledon in 1966 was televised, but not transmitted, in colour as a training exercise.

Steve

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

Thanks for confirming that I was basically right, if a year adrift, HB & Steve. I wonder how many other readers spotted that error! Perhaps the '66 World Cup final was filmed in colour, and shown later on BBC2?

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

A pedent, such as myself, might point out that the article said the match was viewed on a colour set, not that it was in colour.

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

I remember seeing colour sets at the radio show much earlier but I think they were NTSC. The were making experimental colour transmissions on BBC for some time before it started officially.

Peter

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

According to the quote he could have been watching a transmission/video of it some years later than 1966 on a CTV.

Lawrence.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

You're obviously right, Graham-it doesn't actually say they watched the match in colour. Equally, Lawrence, you could be right, if, as I surmised, the match was filmed in colour.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

The colour film of the 1966 World Cup was done for the Pathe News newsreel shown in cinemas. The BBC broadcast coverage was B&W.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

As an aside....
I saw the match live, whilst on holiday in Italy on a B/W telly in a bar. When the match finished the German and English fans watching took off and swopped their shirts!

Peter

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

I watched it in my bedroom on my old HMV 1845 405 tv which I'd "converted" to 625.

Lawrence.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

I had, unusually for me, been following the world cup on the television up to and including the semi-final, but I was on a coach heading off on holiday in Devon at the time of the final, so the passengers were gathered around a transistor radio in the back of the coach listening to the commentary, turning the radio each time the sound faded as the direction of travel changed, so I never got to see it, even in monochrome.

Re: Colour TV in UJ in 1966-surely not!!
 

Looks like I'm more pedantic than you :-D

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

Did you convert the 1845 to dual standard Lawrence? The 1966 World Cup was transmitted in 1966 on BBC1, three years before BBC1 went over to 625.
It gets more confusing every minute! Regards, John.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

No, I converted it from 405 to 625 UHF only, never did get the width quite right (no surprise there) but the pic resolution was good, sound slightly buzzy but was ok for me, I thought the coverage was transmitted on BBC1 and BBC2 at the same time.....? You got me thinking now8-o

Lawrence.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

i believe the UK went to colour in 1967---Oz went in 1975, some 8 years later.

In the leadup to the changeover in Australia, it was common practice to transmit Chroma, but not send colour bursts, so it would appear as B&W on a colour TV.

A few clever lads (maybe lasses as well), found they could produce colour with this signal using a "chroma lock" circuit which locked to the picture chroma.

This varied in complexity from a box with a full PCB of components, down to a CR network tacked across some appropriate part of a Philips K9 CTV.

At the TV site where I worked, we were hard at work, trying to drag our 1959 Marconi TV transmitters into the "colour era", so were interested in what our signals looked like in colour.

As well as the rack mounted test receiver, we had a domestic Philips K9 fed from a probe point on the antenna feed.

We performed the mod on this, & after a bit of fiddling, were rewarded with a nice colour picture.

There was one problem, sometimes it would lock up "out of phase", so when watching "Pot Black", the felt was brown, whilst the woodwork & players were green!

I don't think we were spectacularly more inventive in Oz, so there is the distinct possibility that someone may have used the same trick in 1966 in the UK.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

The BBC used colour cameras on the 1966 General Election because there was US interests in it at the time.

ATV recorded a short special with the victorious 1966 World Cup team in colour for posterity..but that probably got lost when Lew Grade lost control.

Also for posterity was an ATV colour tribute to raise awareness for Aberfan with many notable Welsh celebrities...this apparently now only survives as a betamax copy that an engineer recorded when ATV lost it's franchise.

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

Re your post 12 * Dave, the World Cup Game has been shown complete several times over the years [in the original monochrome]. My first hit on You Tube was a 2006 Doc "How England Won The World Cup" in glorious [35mm film?] full colour! It's probaly there in the original broadcast grey as well. I've referred on previous threads to what WAS happening in 1966 ie an in-house experiment by the Beeb to compare 405 and 625 line colour images. This was covered in Wireless world and it was clear that only technical staff could see much difference, although it was reported as a "win" for 625. Despite being brought up in a football household, I was never really interested. I recall thinking then that result would have been more impressive if not on the home ground and following extended "extra" time.

Dave W

Slightly OT but a discussion on R4 recently had someone naively reminding us
that interest rates as high as 17% used to be common. In fact they were extraordinary during the 2nd WW and the fifties/sixties-peaking at 98%. I don't think he knew about the Beatles 1966 song "Taxman" either :shrug: "If 5% might seem too small-be grateful I don't take it all!" George Harrison was not amused!

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

I seem to remember but I could be wrong as I was quite young at the time , BBC2 did transmit the World Cup Final in 1966 as well as BBC1. They also had different pictures so maybe different cameras. Most of Europe would want a 625 line feed of the match so maybe the 625 line feed. was in colour but not broadcast

Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!
 

Thanks for that Dave. I never was a football fan and I don't think I watched it on either!
My Mum watched it in memory of my Dad who had passed away 3 years earlier. He lived as a boy opposite the old Wimbledon ground in Plough Lane.

Pye televised the Coronation in 1953 in live colour on a closed loop to Gt Ormond St Hospital. I presume it was NTSC. Another first for PYE.