Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

[broadgage]

On TV this evening, "the keeper" a drama set very shortly after the end of the last war.
At a major football stadium, the players tunnel was lit by a twin fluorescent light. Most improbable.
Fluorescent lighting HAD been invented by then, but the equipment was in very short supply and tended to be restricted to important industries, not sporting venues.

[Andrew2]

Not the best 'Avengers' by a long way, but even the bad ones are good with generally intriguing plots and good production values. One thing puzzles me about this episode ' Room without a View' - the final fight scene in the cell block. There's a Philips reel-to-reel tape recorder on the table, but when the fight breaks out it has been replaced by a very crude mock-up. Where the Philips is all curves and grilles, the fake one is a plain white box with a few knobs. Did they not want it damaged or were they wary of it causing injury or what?

[Richard_FM]

I'm guessing it was a stunt double in case it was damaged in the fight!

[broadgage]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I'm guessing it was a stunt double in case it was damaged in the fight!

Or perhaps the actual item was damaged in the filming of the earlier scene, and in the absence of a duplicate, a crude mock up therefore used in the later scene.

[Herald1360]

"Some Like It Hot" shown on BBC2 on Christmas Day shows a late '30s or early '40s Hallicrafters S-20R(?) in one of the yacht scenes. The film released in 1959, was set in 1929. I'm not convinced about that telescope, either!


https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hallic..._20r_s20r.html

[David G4EBT]

Don't know if anyone on the forum watched the fist part of the three-part drama last night on ITV entitled 'Stonehouse'. It was about the late Former Post-Master General, John Stonehouse who stole the identity of a dead constituent, faked his own death to flee from financial difficulties and allegations of spying for the Czechs.

Quite a scandal at the time - I remember it well.

I noticed that in his living room there was a Bush DAC90A on a shelf. I know that they pop up all over the place, (a bit like potholes in the street), but in a period drama set in the early 1970s? A radio then at least 20 years old looked oddly out of place. A Bush TR82 might have been more apt.

Not wishing to rub in he difficulties which some forum members are experiencing with ITVX, it's here:

https://www.itv.com/watch/stonehouse...3/10a1973a0001

[Andrew2]

Oh I don't know David. My Mum had a DAC90A on her sideboard well into the 70's (I know because I kept it going for her).

[DrStrangelove]

I was beginning to doubt myself but turns out I wasn't going mad.

I watched "Murphy's War (1971)" over Xmas and spotted an unusual receiver in the German submarine:

https://www.mondo-digital.com/murphy3.jpg

It's a Murphy B40/B41/B62.

Who'd have thunk?

[music-centre]

On the otherwise excellent series “Atlantic crossing “ this evening president Roosevelt speaking in the USA during the early part of WW2 on a TV in a shop window display of mid 50s British Televisions - To be fair I guess sourcing enough American pre-war sets to fill a shop window for a couple of minutes scene would hardly be worth it though!

[Peter.N.]

I seem to remember a Bush TV53 there, if I'm thinking about the right thing. They have a 13 channel tuner

Peter

[DrStrangelove]

"The Victors (1963)".

Segment set in 1946, Berlin.

George Hamilton gives his German girlfriend what looks like a Murphy U144, which apparently first appeared in 1949.

[emeritus]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

Oh I don't know David. My Mum had a DAC90A on her sideboard well into the 70's (I know because I kept it going for her).

In the mid-1990's I repaired a DAC90 for a work colleague. It was one his aunt was still using, and the fault was a valve that would stop working when warmed up, fixed by fitting a replacement.

[McMurdo]

Saw a snippet of series 2 'World On Fire', the sunday WW2 drama set (this episode) in the 41-42 North Africa campaign. Someone was listening to a Sobell 615, not produced until the war had ended. Not surprising siince they'd also added the digital 'smokey room' effect to any scene warmed by coal fire.

[Doghouse Riley]

I don't think this was getting it wrong, I think it was just the director's joke involving a record player.
The pop group didn't really exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGaZM1smU3M