I've never seen this before, perhaps some of you haven't either.
Video Description
The BBC's second television channel, BBC2, was due to launch in the evening of 20th April 1964. Unfortunately, BBC Television Centre was affected by a power failure shortly before the planned start time - which put paid to the broadcast of the whole evening schedule. An impromptu news report was hurriedly put to air instead, from Studio A at Alexandra Palace, which was unaffected by the power cut. The abortive attempt at a launch of BBC2 was thought never recorded. However, in 2003, this recording was discovered. It was recorded, off-air, at the BBC Research Department at Kingswood Warren in Surrey. There is no sound for the first 2 minutes - and this is as transmitted.
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Exactly ten years before my sister was born 🙂
The edited version (as opposed to the PasB) is here, published some seven months ago.
I recall being told about this opening night power failure on one of my training lectures, and subsequently by various people at work. Inevitably, a degree of "three'n'fourpence" had crept into the tale over the years but the gist seemed to be that a fire had occurred in HV cables associated with a Battersea service duct, or something of the sort.
@turretslug That was my understanding too. I remember the TC evacuation location was the Grove and there were tie lines to it for a Tele J as I understand; in later years the DRC (as it was called) was at Elstree. No idea where now...
That’s a professional at work, no flapping about just calmly delivered. Telephone ringing, not a problem. Hats off to the gentleman.
BBC2 didn’t start from Winter Hill until late 1965 so we didn’t see this.
Frank
I well remember that evening back in 1964! Our brand spanking new Pye 11U was all ready to show it's first proper UHF program (as opposed to just a test card), and everything failed! I remember the 'BBC2 will start shortly'....I never got to see it since I had school next day and was usually in bed by about 9:30. I vaguely remember a news item showing the result of a fire that had caused the black-out, probably shown next day.
Some 35 years later I was involved with some of the guys at Kingswood Warren during the start-up of digital TV.
Of perhaps peripheral interest is this telerecording of the opening night of ABC TV in Sydney in 1956.
Which of course was also 625 lines.
Note the hum bars in the image. They have nothing to do with the film capture, they were caused by a massive ground loop problem on the Gore Hill site. There was a soon-to-be-decommissioned, badly maintained tram system that ran past the site. High resistance rail joins meant that the return current for the 750 Volts DC that operated the system would flow mostly through the ground, right across the ABCTV site. The DC for the trams was supplied by more than one generator, which is why you can sometimes see several out-of-sync hum bars.
There exists a longer version of this video where we were shown behind the scenes. The sound from a telecine could not be brought up. The response to the problem was cringe-worthy and could have come from a comedy show!
@irob2345 Would those hum bars be seen by the general population or were they kept within the studio/transmission site?
Frank
"Would those hum bars be seen by the general population or were they kept within the studio/transmission site?"
The hum bars went to air! The transmitter and studios were on the same site. Of course, they would come and go depending on tram traffic!
The story goes that a custom differential amplifier with a huge common mode rejection capacity was built and that made the whole thing moderately acceptable.
On opening night they were using their "standby" transmitter and a temporary mast that was a re-purposed electricity transmission tower that collectively was known as "Little Toot". The ABC were the only broadcaster to source their tower from the UK (the others, 7 and 9, were sourced locally) but it got stuck in the Suez crisis and was very late arriving.
Early in 1957 the trams were removed and the problem went away.
In 1939 Sydney had one of the world's biggest tram networks. By 1958 they were all gone.
The tower is still there but no broadcasts emanate from it. The remaining Mowbray Road tower (built in 1960) carries all TV as well as digital and FM radio. Ch9 recently demolished their tower. Sold the land for high-rise apartments.
@irob2345 Perhaps just has the BBC2 switch on, the number of viewers would be relatively small, presume ABC would be similar. The removal of the trams not long after was probably quite a relief.
Two really good stories about the start of new television services.
Frank
I can just remember the start of TV in Australia. It had been long anticipated and many people had TVs by mid-1956, ready for the Olympics. Living rooms of those lucky enough to have a TV in 1956 were crowded places, full of "bring a plate" visitors. At least that was the case in Coventry Rd Cabramatta where I grew up.
One of the neighbors had a 21" Admiral. I can remember watching a kine of the Red Skelton Show from the US and noting the very poor picture quality.
Anything exciting would draw night-time crowds outside TV shops, who used to install extension speakers outside the shop window and leave a TV running in the window.
No TV in pubs, they closed their doors at 6:30 pm in those days!
Hardly anybody watched the ABC in those days, it was considered boring! Well that was my impression as a 7 year old. We had the two commercial channels, ATN7 and TCN9.
ATN7 Sydney set a world record in 1956 for the longest outside broadcast link ever done by a TV station using their own equipment - Melbourne to Sydney. Nearly 800km.
I can remember watching the 1956 Olympics live at a neighbor's house, on a 17" Stromberg-Carlson. They had some rain fade problems on one of the hops and the picture would occasionally break up, to be replaced by a slide. The sound came up a landline.
All very good, but what has the above got to do with the abortive start of BBC 2 in the UK?
I suppose in the UK we don't have the problems of distance that you would have in a huge place like Australia. Interesting to hear how differently things were handled and problems dealt with.
I have seen that BBC2 launch film before somewhere. It really is like a Python sketch! Helped by the fact that the presenter has a passing resemblance to a young John Cleese...
ISTR someone did a spoof where the presenter was talking by candlelight but I am unable to find it now.
@slidertogrid The aborted BBC 2 launch film was released in a censored form by the BBC itself to mark the 60th anniversary of the launch.
As for the candle: that was done by Denis Tuohy at the BBC to launch BBC 2 the next day.
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=2687475447947069&vanity=BBCArchive
@cathovisor Nice to see that again, I didn’t see it live, but it must have been shown sometime in the last 60 years.
A great clip of not taking oneself too seriously. 👍
Frank
It's surprising how few people knew how to receive BBC2 even if they had a dual-standard set. I had to show a cousin living in Bolton how to move the coax plug from the VHF socket to the UHF socket. The picture wasn't perfect but it was viewable.
It’s probably been posted before. BBC2 had a small audience, many sets either not convertible or deemed to expensive to convert, plus the cost of an aerial. The programme content didn’t help with its popularity either, the aims were laudable, a TV service similar to the Third programme but not mass market.
When the time came for a new TV the original aerial was usually past its best so we could easily upgrade with a VHF/UHF type.
The BBC had a rethink and started transmitting programme content that was more popular but included the Third programme type content as well. That put the network on its feet so to speak and with the expansion of transmitters gave the channel a chance to shine.
For me BBC2 has lost shine and now a channel for repeats, probably something good there but lost in the rest of its output.
I am probably alone in the thought, we have so many channels now to choose from, 24 hours a day, but very little I find worthwhile to watch. Still lots of time for my hobbies.
Frank
I am probably alone in the thought, we have so many channels now to choose from, 24 hours a day, but very little I find worthwhile to watch. Still lots of time for my hobbies.
I remember in 1979 Pink Floyd released "The Wall". Listening to "Nobody home" I heard the lyric "I've got 13 Channels of $hit on the TV to choose from" ('Pink' was on an American tour).
I remember thinking Wow! That's America for you... 13 Channels! We had three at the time. 13 Channels?! That will never happen here, we don't have enough buttons on the tuner! How how naive was I !
@slidertogrid Later expanded to "57 channels and nothing on" by Bruce Springsteen in 1992.
