Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

[Nicklyons2]

Originally Posted by wireful3

Anachronistic idiomatic phrases seem far more obvious than wrong props.

Try watching WPC56 then; "have a nice day" - in 1956 Britain?
"a tea for me and a Cappuccino for her" was there anywhere outside London where one could obtain such a drink before 1980s?
Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'
addressing members of CID as 'detective' - that wasn't even used in the US before Hill St Blues!

Props wise they have collared a good compliment of DAC90s as one might expect and the Police Station has a Sky Queen. Television hasn't, it would appear, yet appeared in the fictional Birmingham suburb.

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

Originally Posted by Nicklyons2

Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'
.....fictional Birmingham suburb.

I don't know this series, but having been born in Brum and lived there until the age of 19, may I suggest that "constable" spoken in a real Brummie accent can sound decidedly rude. Maybe that's why they thought that "officer" was less likely to be offensive....Just a thought.
Colin.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Nicklyons2

Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'.

Indeed: in my mindspace "officers" are the upper-ranks [think military-equivalents of Commissioned grades - Lieutentants-and-above].

Generic Police-constables, PCSOs and sergeants are 'other ranks' and I don't record them as 'officer' in any offical documentation.

Though it gets a bit confusing these days when an initial inductee to GCHQ [or the various MI5/6/7-type services] is today a "Surveillance Officer" even when they're straight out of college. In times-past they were "Research Assistants" for their first decade or so.

[Nicklyons2]

Firstly, as an update, series 3 of WPC56 has been screened in the past week with many new cast and the word 'constable' has appeared; maybe some letters to the Radio Times? however the dreaded 'detective' was still in use for CID members.

Secondly, a 'revolutionary' type of film was on evidence in this last series; raw film stock resistant to fogging!. The 'baddies', concentration camp doctor + evil nurse, had documented their beastliness on 8mm and had stashed it in a locked drawer. The police opened the drawer to reveal a 3" metal spool of 8mm film - one of the pressed metal Kodak type I'm sure many of you will remember. "quick, get it to the lab" the detective entoned. Now if it hadn't already been processed having it uncased on that spool I would suggest would have long since fogged it. Alternatively, given that type of spool was the type Kodak sent processed film back on, I wondered what 'the lab' were going to do with it!

Audio documentation of 'experiments' was on 1/4" Emitape 4 spoke spools with ribbed centres, now here I can't remember; I suspect they're 1960s but I can't think what Emitape spools looked like earlier - any ideas?

[McMurdo]

I'm just watching the documentary 'Churchill, when Britain said no' on BBC2. He's just broadcast the fall of France and it was pictured emanating from a Bush VHF90

['LIVEWIRE?']

In 'Cospiracy-The Death of Hitler', last nigt on Channel 5, I'm sure the broadcast about Hitler's suicide, made in Berlin on 1st. May 1945, was emanating from a mid 1950s West German Table radio, maybe one of the big Grundig's or similar!

[Herald1360]

I'm not convinced that the payphone Lovell was portrayed using in tonight's programme on BBC4 about Jodrell Bank was correct. It didn't look like a button A button B installation to me.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have got squealy noises by twiddling knobs on a 'scope either.

[cheerfulcharlie]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

Remember the yellow nurses uniforms on Emergency Ward 10. White caused the cameras to flare.

Apparently when Gerry Anderson was filming Stingray in colour, the original crew uniforms were a certain shade of red which came out as total black on B/W TVs and disturbed the viewing experience...so these were changed.

[Niechcial,Steve]

I went yesterday to see the brilliant film 'The Lady in the Van'. It starts about the year 1970 and one of the scenes is the display window of a 1970s TV shop with tellies turned on in the way that used to be then. As far as I could see from one view of the scene they had the correct models for the year- a mixture of colour and monochrome. However the big boob was that their little 1400 transportable was showing a colour picture! Has anyone else picked up radio/tv continuity errors like this from film and Tv?

[Restoration73]

In the Jodrell bank one, he is seen setting up initially in a field with a Marconi signal
generator and a "Radar" (Waveforms Limited) crt tester, both of which were not
available in 1949. There are historians, and there are props buyers.
It was probably ok to see the Taylor multimeters used as a videophone with the meter movement removed, as Thunderbirds was meant to be fiction.

Watching 'Fools on the Hill' an Ekco A22 in the background, odd for 1936!

[TrevorG3VLF]

I'm afraid I was responsible for errors in 'Wartime farming'.
I was asked to supply an electric fence unit on Thursday, collected on Friday, installed on Saturday and filmed on Monday. Unfortunately the one they chose had a patent dated after the war.
They were not so keen on returning them and I had to pester and pester to get some action.
There were several things not right in the program, for example they could not start the Ford tractor so chose a post war Marshal with a cartridge start. It made farming appear very easy.

[Nicklyons2]

Originally Posted by Niechcial,Steve

However the big boob was that their little 1400 transportable was showing a colour picture!

Not as big AN error as a Bush TV109 showing a colour picture, (a colour news report from ABC TV! in the film "Quatermass and the Pit"); at least the Thorn 1400 could run on 625.

[McMurdo]

I've just seen 'Cue The Queen' on BBC1; A great docu about the history of the monarch's christmas speech. Lots of clips of old radios, equipment and TVs. (The wireless museum is in the credits). But early on it shows the first christmas broadcast by King George the 5th made in 1932 being listened-to by a group of his commonwealth subjects on an Ever Ready Saucepan Special

[dave walsh]

Yes I flagged that on the Fernish BRC 2000 thread re the set he's getting ready for this years QS. A good watch whether you are a royalist/traditionalist or not, with interesting inserts as you say [and I've not seen the first half yet] BBC1.

It's actually very much done in the style of the very many BBC4 programs with broadcasting/historical references that they produce at a bargain price. The last one was probably Ballrooms and Ballerinas-Dance At The BBC. BBC4 Sun 13/12/15.

Dave W

[BottleMan]

Endeavour 10th Jan 2016

For the life of me I can't work out how to use an AVO transistor analyser to record telephone messages. Any ideas, people?

[Humber888]

Haven't watched this yet. About how far into the episode should I look? Otherwise, if you could modulate a small lamp with the message, you could then use an OCP71 to detect the light variations! I'm sure there is a project in there somewhere.

[barretter]

It's about 40 minutes in. There's also a Tandberg series 84 reel-to-reel on the table to which the transistor analyzer is supposed to act as a preamplifier, presumably, as the technician has headphones plugged into it!

[Beobloke]

I was most upset to see the cardboard box from a Dual CS505-1 turntable being used to hold files in the 2011 re-make of 'Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy' that I watched last weekend.

Nothing to do with the turntable, but everything to do with the fact that the film is set in the early 1970s and the CS505-1 wasn't released until 1981...

[Studio263]

Originally Posted by BottleMan

Endeavour 10th Jan 2016

Better to watch Deutschland83 on the other side, very well done in all respects. Bonus points for the Beovision 8802 TV and Beocord 8800V V2000 VCR on the correct factory stand in a big German house, also one of those Grundig TV sets where the remote control fits into the front in the opening scene. The remote control was on the desk, perfect. Great story too.