Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be

and how they achieve what we all take for granted. (There's even a lovely section devoted to ancient bits of broadcasting equipment, some of which I have a horrible feeling I once used!).

Making History

A fascinating site where I found myself wasting hours is the Historical Television Website at http://welcome.to/htw/ , where a mass of esoteric information has been gathered. The 1956 map of transmitters makes for interesting reading in these days when we get short-tempered if our internet connection goes slow. Imagine having NO TELEVISION AT ALL!!!! While you're gasping at that thought, enjoy a nostalgic trample through such classics as the first BBC tuning signal. (The plot wasn't much to write home about it, but it was better than Crossroads (see above).

Fifties fans will enjoy http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/ , another well designed site with some nostalgic bits of RealVideo to enjoy. This majors mainly on TV programmes from the 1950s, but there are some entertainingly trivial bits too.

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/5144/ is a site about one of the better known ITV regional companies, Thames TV. The company produced such TV classics as The Benny Hill Show, Rumpole of the Bailey and Mr Bean. John Bain's site takes you behind the scenes of one of the major British TV companies (which eventually fell foul of the government and mysteriously found itself franchise-less) with an outline of its history and masses of background information.

Trade Test Transmissions

And a special mention to the fans of the Test Card. If you're from a country that never HAD a test card, you'll find it hard to understand the passion these technical test transmissions arouse. Actually, even if you're from a country that DOES have a test card you'll find it hard to understand. There is, believe it or not, a thriving fan club for these apparently dull subjects. Read all about the Test Card Circle and their own magazine at http://www.meldrum.co.uk/tcc/index.html . At http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/inmemory.ht... you can get even get details of Test Card coasters and jigsaw puzzles. And everything you could ever want to know about Test Card F (which is in use in over 30 countries around the world) can be found at http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/bb... - you can even download your own version at ftp://ftp.bbc.co.uk/pub/video/stills/ .

So next time you watch the 'nuts and bolts' of TV - it may only be the TV equivalent to you of drawing breath - but to someone, somewhere, it's nostalgia.

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