[David G4EBT]

Reading the advert for that TV puts into perspective how little you got for your money, and what a poor viewing experience it provided. A screen 7.75" x 6.25" (10" diagonal) - about A5 size, (similar to an iPad). But of course it was novel and no doubt a 'must have' for those with deep pockets towards the end of the '30s depression years. 45 guineas = £47.25 in 'new money', in 1938 which would equate today to a price of £3,066 when accounting for inflation. It could be bought for 'just half a guinea a week' which today equates to £35.70. Few families back then would have had that much disposable income to spend on a TV.

The BBC Television Service officially launched on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London. It broadcast from Monday to Saturday between 15:00 and 16:00, and 21:00 and 22:00, so just two hours viewing per day, six days a week on one station. At that time, there were countless radio stations on LW, MW and SW broadcasting a wide range of programmes more or less around the clock, so in contrast, those who could afford a TV didn't get much of an experience for their money, beyond 'one-upmanship' - a facet of 'pride of ownership' being enhanced by a TV aerial on the chimney for neighbours to see!

The first major outside broadcast was the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937, which I guess - like the Queen's coronation in 1953 - was no doubt used in adverts to try to stimulate sales.

Barely three years after TV broadcasts began, on 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning and BBC Television transmission didn't resume until 7 June 1946 at 15:00, by which time pre-war TVs were 8 - 10 years old, and after seven years in storage, may not have fared too well.

So it's easy to see why pre-war TVs are now so few and far between and are much valued by collectors. Quite a challenge to restore and put back into use with standards converters. Unlike radios, I guess that no-one who is a novice would attempt to restore an old TV, even post-war, so at least they end up in good hands.

I recall the 1953 Coronation. Few houses had TVs and those that did, were obliged to have friends visit to watch the proceedings. I wasn't yet 14 years old - to old to watch nonsense like 'Muffin the Mule' and to young to have the slightest interest in the Coronation. Even so, along with others kids who'd been pressganged into watching the Coronation, we were expected to sit on the floor in silence in a room full of adults and to appear awestruck when in reality, we were bored out of our skulls. When I say we 'watched' the coronation, we didn't so much 'watch' the TV as 'see' it. Even with the curtains drawn and the lights off, the picture wasn't so much black and white as 'shades of grey'. The 'magnifier' on the front of the 9" picture did nothing to enhance the experience.

We didn't have a TV till 1959, rented from Rediffusion. By then, in my late teens, it was an era of Espresso bars and skiffle groups. TV was for old fogies who didn't get out much. Why would a teenager want to stay in to watch 'Dixon of Dock Green', Hitchcock', The Army Game' or 'The good Old Days'. For goodness sake? Pubs were just as bad - full of old geezers smoking full strength Capstans and Park Drives, coughing and spluttering, playing dominoes, or worse still, playing an old out-of-tune piano having a 'sing-song'.

Though I can understand why there are still many valve radio around, given their small size and in some instances, attractiveness, but what always surprises me is just how many old TVs there still in existence. I guess we must have had at least 10 - 15 sets in our 57 years of married life, but they'll all have gone to the tip. Most had no 'eye appeal' - just a box on legs with a screen, small speaker and a few buttons.

But then countless millions of TV have been sold over the last sixty years, so if only a tiny percentage have survived, that's a sizable number.

Just a few socio-economic nostalgic ramblings really. Sorry if that's taken the thread a bit off topic.