The Blue Peter logo was
designed by a young artist working for the BBC. The
artist, Tony Hart, later went on to present Vision On,
Take Hart and its various spin offs and introduce Morph
to the world.
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In 1936-39 the BBC used
Big Ben to provide time checks - except that it wasn't
Big Ben! They actually used a 5ft scale model with a
camera in front.
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The official opening of
BBC 2 on April 20th 1964 was postponed at the last moment
due to a power failure at Battersea Power Station, which
blacked out the whole of Television Centre. Instead of
the grand opening gala, the first programme actually
broadcast was Play School, at 11am the next morning.
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In some ways the power
failure was a mixed blessing. In the rush to get BBC2 on
air, the opening shot of the BBC 2 clock would have
looked pretty silly as someone had forgotten to fit the
hands!
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Sticking with BBC2, the
station had its own mascot. Hullabaloo and Custard were
two kangaroos and were meant to represent BBC Television,
from whom the new baby "BBC2" was about to leap
from the pouch.
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The EMI-Marconi 405
line television system, which entered permanent service
at the BBC in February 1937, was finally decommissioned
on January 3rd 1985.
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George Hersee had two
daughters, both of whom "auditioned" for the
part. Carole was chosen as she had lighter hair.
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Early designs of Test
Card D had to be scrapped as they showed up too many
faults that existed on television sets of that period.
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BBC Trade Test
Transmissions ended in May 1983, since when sample pages
from Ceefax have been shown when there are no programmes.
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Channel 4, or ITA-2 as
it was then known, was planned in the early 1960s. It
didn't actually appear until 1982.
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