Renewed plea for help to find lost TV shows

I see that another appeal has been launched in an attempt to find some of the lost TV shows from the early days of the medium.

The appeal will be launched on Saturday June 4, 20110, at a Kaleidoscope event in Stourbridge, West Midlands, and is being backed by the BBC Sound Archive and the British Library Sound Archive.

Many shows turned up from domestic sources the last time this was done.

In the early days of television, video recording was so new, and the tape so expensive, virtually nothing was archived at the BBC, and to save costs, video tape was erased and re-used. At the time, no real value was placed on the material it contained

A group devoted to the appreciation of vintage television is calling on TV watchers to search their attics for recordings of programmes feared lost.

Episodes of Doctor Who, Dad’s Army and The Likely Lads are among those of which no known copies exist.

“Many people recorded shows off the TV and radio as far back as the 1950s,” said Chris Kerry of Kaleidoscope, organisers of the Lost Shows appeal. The purpose of the appeal is to uncover those domestic recordings.”

Four missing episodes of 1950s sci-fi drama The Quatermass Experiment are among the most sought-after shows.

Four Dennis Potter dramas from the ’60s are also missing believed to be wiped by broadcaster, as is most of the first series of The Avengers.

BBC News – Plea put out for ‘lost’ TV shows

Lost UK TV Shows Search Engine

Analogue TV signals end in mid-2011

The switchover process to digital television is due to end on June 22, 2011, if the current plans carry on according to schedule. The BBC tells us:

The former Border TV area has already switched from analogue to digital while the former Grampian TV region will make the change between May and October.

It has now been announced that most of Ayrshire, Arran, southern Argyll and the Rosneath area of Dunbartonshire will switch off on 11 May next year.

Some of Fife and Lothian will switch on 1 June and the rest of the central belt will follow a week later.

About nine out of 10 Scots already have digital television on their main sets. But many portables and video recorders still use the analogue signals.

The full details were published on March 31, 2010, and can be read in the associated press release, Countdown Begins to a Digital Scotland

This will mark the end of analogue television transmissions, when the last of the old transmitters is finally switched off. If I’ve been reading the earlier literature correctly – and that was a few years ago, so it also depends on my memory (not the best thing to depend on) – it will also allow the digital system to function properly. While the analogue system was still live, the digital transmitters (in some locations) were running at reduced power, and there may have been other restrictions, which will no longer apply once the analogue system is finally purged.

So far, I’ve seen various gripes published by those unhappy with digital, which on the one hand is fair enough, but on the other is just a redistribution of transmission and reception problems, which we’ve always had, and always will. While it’s true that some will now have problems where they did not before, others who used to have problems no longer have them. It’s called life, and it’s not always fair, but it can be counted on to change, whether we like it or not.

The only real downside I have seen reported is that of areas served by a relay, rather than a direct transmission. In this case, issues with the relay equipment and original signal mean that only Freeview services of the BBC, STV, Channel Four, Five, and a few of the commercial channels can be relayed. I haven’t seen any indication that any changes to the relay stations are planned in order to improve this.

Even though I live in Glasgow, and can almost see the relevant transmitter masts, I could never rely on Channel 5 – I had it, but it could be decidedly rough. Sine the first day of digital all those years ago, all my reception became clear as a bell, and didn’t even need the outside aerial and amplifier I had to install for analogue, and even that was grainy, with rubbish frequently delivered by teletext.

Crooks

The real losers in the changeover have been the vulnerable folk targeted by crooks and conmen, whose activities have seen them lose hundreds of pounds in the purchase of unnecessary equipment, and paying for work they did not need to have done. The changeover process has also suffered by association, even though it is not connected in any way, and by the promotion and belief in a number of ‘urban myths’ promoted by the crooks in order to further their activities, and frighten people into parting with their cash.

There’s no telling how many have been preyed on by door-knockers selling them things like ‘digital’ aerials at vastly inflated prices, on the premise that they will not be able to receive any TV pictures with their current analogue aerials once the signal is turned off. Be clear that there is usually no need for a new aerial, or that there is any such thing as a ‘digital’ aerial. There may be case for replacing the existing aerial, if reception is poor, or the old one is past its ‘sell by’ date. However, all that needs is a new aerial, not a ‘digital’ aerial.

Then there are the ones who will talk your hind legs off and try to convince you that your current television set can’t be adapted, and you’d better buy a nice digital flat-screen model now, before the rush starts and supplies run low. Any reasonably new television will have SCART or other video connectors that make the process of connecting a Freeview box a few minutes’ work, and even earlier sets can still be used by the addition of a modulator. This only costs a few pounds, more if you need the services of a real engineer to install it along with the Freeview box, but if your TV is that old, you’d be better off donating to a communications museum, or selling it to a collector. However, the important thing is that even that step shouldn’t cost the hundred of pounds that the crooks take.

Probably the most disappointing aspect that made the news during the changeover was the reports of staff at the large electrical outlets handing out misinformation, apparently in a drive to sell new television sets, and drive up sales. Although possibly not quite in the ‘crook’ category, it was still misinformation, led to confusion among the public, and sold sets to vulnerable people who lacked the technical knowledge to challenge the sales staff concerned. The only positive aspect it that despite the purchase being unnecessary in reality, they buyers were not being charged inflated prices for sets that had probably fallen of the back of at least one lorry.

Non-event

The whole thing should have been a non-event, but thanks to the efforts of the lowest common denominator that seem to control our lives (the crooks), it has become an issue, and it’s unfortunate to reflect that even the well-meaning and caring folk that sought to help those who might have difficulty have ended up causing problems. I’m not knocking them by any means, but when you have so many vociferous people and organisations making themselves heard regarding a relatively small problem, the effect is to become a mob with a cause, and many folk that wouldn’t have a problem suddenly believe they have, simply because the publicity which is needed to let folk know there is help, also acts like a giant ‘Chinese whisper’, and raises a non-event into an event.

In a few years, once the digital system has had as much time spent on it as the analogue system had (more than 60 years in its postwar form), like our old friend from ‘the year 2000′ – The Millennium Bug – most will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

And we can turn our attention to the modern-day farce that is Digital Radio in the UK.

Now that will be fun.

BBC Scotland plans new children’s science-fiction game show

A number of reports have appeared during the past week or so, telling of a new children’s game show based on a future robotic war, and entitled Mission 2110.

Note: (This series first aired on CBBC, beginning Monday, May 3, 2010.)

Location manager Stephen Burt has been reported as saying, “This is potentially an award-winning show. It is set in 2110 in a world where robots have taken over. The children who take part will be time travellers from 2010 and will battle the robots.” The game has been described as a cross between Crystal Maze and Doctor Who. There are to be 20 mission for the participants during the contest, with only one winner to be left at the conclusion.

The setting for the show will be two of the six Maersk container ships currently stored in cold lay-up in Loch Striven, and presently rendered surplus to requirements thanks to the worldwide downturn in trade caused by the recession. The loch has seen similar service over the past decades, as worldwide influences have rendered various cargo ships and tankers redundant, sometimes even before they have been completed, such is the time taken to build them in relation to market swings.

The action will take place within the massive holds of the ships, which are currently empty, and through the engine rooms, which are presently silent, as most of the engines have been laid-up to preserve them, awaiting re-activation when the vessels return to service.

Participants will live on board the ships for the three-week duration, and Maersk Beaumont and Bentonville (see below) appear to be the chosen venues for the activities, which will see three robots, created by a London-based special effects team which has worked on Doctor Who, and the sets arriving during December.

They will not be on holiday for the duration, and will be expected to take part in the competition, and take their schoolwork with them, and complete 15 hours of tuition per week.

Filming is scheduled to take place between January and March of 2010, and the show will appear on CBBC beginning on April 21, 2010.

The raft containing the six Maersk ships is shown below, with the two chosen ships being the second from the left (Bentonville), and second from the right (Beaumont).

The six Maersk ship raft on Loch Striven, left to right, Maersk Brooklyn, Bentonville, Baltimore, Sealand Performance, Beaumont, and Boston

You can find further pictures of the vessels here: Maersk at Loch Striven Photo Gallery by Zak at pbase.com

Update

The BBC Press Office issued a Press Release regarding the new series and its production, on January 27, 2010:

Production starts on ambitious new CBBC game show Mission:2110

Date: 27.01.2010>
Category: Scotland; Children’s

BBC Scotland is currently in Argyll filming Mission:2110, an ambitious and bold new 13-episode sci-fi game show for CBBC from the team behind Raven.

Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, in each episode a team of four contestants span time and space to travel to the futuristic setting of our planet, long after mankind has disappeared, to try to restore peace and stability.

The young recruits, guided by their mentor Caleb, have to battle, in a series of missions, against the Roboidz – intelligent towering cybernetic entities who now rule Earth – snatching Bio-Rods, the enemy’s vital fuel source, in order to shut down their empire.

The sheer size and scale of the mighty Roboidz was such that the production team needed to find an alternative location to the traditional studio format to create Future Gate, the Roboidz base.

After scouting numerous locations the production crew discovered that the empty container ships based on Loch Striven on the Clyde would provide them with the the industrial background needed to create a suitable backdrop.

Production has already started on the ship and filming is set to continue until early March, after which state-of-the-art compositing and computer-generated work will bring the futuristic world alive.

The series is set for transmission in the spring.

Prosthetic and costume specialists Millenium FX (Doctor Who, The Day Of The Triffids) are creating the Roboidz and Shades (humanoid slaves to the robots) and writer Phil Ford (Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures) has created the back-story.

Lindsay Duncan (Doctor Who, Rome) will voice Neuros and Cybele, the good and evil alter egos of the Roboidz creator Laura Gant. The series also stars CBBC’s newest recruit Stuart Goldsmith, who plays the show’s hero Caleb.

Executive producer Sue Morgan says: “Mission:2110 is an exciting ambitious and challenging new fast-paced game show where the contestants will need to use all their cunning and guile to avoid elimination.”

Mission: 2110 is a BBC Scotland production for CBBC, series produced by Nick Hopkin (OOglies, Hedz), directed by James Morgan (Trapped, Den Of Doom) and executive produced by Sue Morgan (Raven, Ed & Oucho’s Excellent Adventures).

VT

Locals will be able to see the ALI CAT travelling to and from the raft, as the passenger ferry has been chartered to run twice a week – on Monday and Friday – to Loch Striven with production crews and children taking part in the programme.

Black and white TV not so popular up here

Philips projection television c. 1960

I used to be fairly obsessed with television, but that interest seems to rest in its history, the various technologies it has been developed with, and the programmes that appeared on it as it was evolving. At one stage (pre-internet), we even had our own amateur transmission and reception services. It’s amazing to look at the difference the internet has made to shifting TV images, as it cost a small fortune then, and needed high aerials even to cover a few miles. Now you can go worldwide for little more than a few pounds.

In more recent times, as it matured and multiplied in both type and content – not to mention its spin-off as satellite and cable – its attraction waned, as the channel filled with popular tat, and the original content was swamped in favour of any old rubbish that would attract the brain-dead to ogle the screen and have their remaining brain cells washed out by adverts which arguably began to get better then the content around them.

However, that’s another issue that could be debated for ages, or at least three minutes… if my attention span lasted any longer than that nowadays.

What was interesting was a recent look at the TV Licensing figures (released to mark the 40th anniversary of the first colour transmissions on BBC1 and ITV), and the numbers for black and white television licences: 28,000 in the UK with 1,950 in Scotland. That’s just under 7% of the total. Looking at the current population numbers, Scotland has just over 8% of the UK’s population.

While I don’t generally approve of figures analysed in isolation, something that includes the whole population might be less skewed than sampled results. So, simplistic thoughts could be that Scots are not a stingy as they are made out to be, and don’t think it’s worthwhile going for either an old black and white television, or telling porkies, and buying a black and white licence even though they have a colour set. Or maybe they are harder on their tellies than folk south of the border, and need to to replace them sooner. I’m sure a little more imagination would produce some even more fascinating theories for the differences – and it should be remembered that tying these figures together could be faulted for tending to assume one licence per person, as opposed to one license per address.

The first colour TV broadcasts began in this country in 1967 on BBC2 and on November 15, 1969, on BBC1 and ITV. The first colour pictures were seen on BBC1 in Scotland in December 1969.

I’ve no idea when our house went colour, but it certainly wasn’t in the early days. I do know we went through  series of small black and white sets, getting bigger until the beast shown above made an appearance at one point, and then had another that was dual standard, operating on both 405 and 625 line systems, but still black and white. Even in my pram, I reckon I thought the quality of the colour on those early television left a lot to the imagination, and were very artificial – probably too highly saturated just to emphasize the effect rather than the reality. Even today, I’m fairly unimpressed by many flat-screen TVs. While there are some gems in terms of colour fidelity, others look as if they have come straight out of a colour-blind artist’s palette. But when they’re good, they can be very good, and when combined with a good high-definition picture, the effect is almost worth the cost.

Vintage tech auction may fetch up to £1 million

Philips projection television c. 1960

I’m looking at my own small collection of what now appears to be classed as vintage technology with renewed interest this morning, after reading of an auction to be held in Edinburgh by Bonhams next week.

A collection of some 758 items representing technology covering several hundred years of development, currently the property of Michael Bennett-Levy, from Edinburgh, and amassed over a period of  30 years is expected to sell for up to £1 million.

Included are 26 pre-war television sets, of which the auctioneers say only about 500 examples have survived. Although I could have had no say in the matter at the time, it makes me wonder what our postwar projection television (pictured) which originated in the 1950s would be worth – dismantled for parts when it expired.

Included in the auction will be LED calculators from 1971, estimated at £200 to £300. Some of these I do have, complete with advertising literature from the day, and recall that even the cheapest -  only 4-function devices (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,with a constant key if you were lucky) – were priced at £79.95.

The collection also includes scientific instruments from the 1800s, early computers, and even the producer’s working papers for the opening of the BBC television service on November 2, 1936.

I think it may be time to move my collection of early PCs and original software into a safer storage area, and dig them out again after another 20 years has passed. At the moment, about 25 of them are serving as supports for shelves to store the rest on!

Even being careful with the old collection can be thwarted by disasters that happen nearby though, as I learned when a small shelf unit decided to fail and collapse. Although there was little weight involved, the resulting fallout still managed to throw small items a fair distance, and one early Galileo thermometer suffered a cracked base, leading to the loss of the liquid contents some days later as the crack spread and opened, and I’m currently having carry out a very tricky resetting operation on an aneroid barometer. This is not the typical wood and glass item seen adorning walls, but a proper scientific measuring device capable of reading atmospheric pressure to parts of a millibar. Despite being both robust and transportable, and in a heavy metal case for transport, whatever struck the casing did so in such a way as to cause the internal gearing to jump out of synchronisation, which will require complete disassembly to restore – an operation not made any easier by the need to fabricate suitable tools to match the special screws used to assemble the device.

The exercise will ultimately be worth the effort though, as the same barometer is still available from its original Swiss manufacturer today, to the same design, for a mere £5,000 list price!

Clueless ITV

A few weeks ago, a chance remark in our Forum alerted me to stories in the media of rumours that Taggart was to be dropped.

In the midst of claims, counter-claims, and denials in the press, I’m not even going to try and confirm or deny this story, but it would be a pretty desperate and misguided management team that “threw the baby out with the bathwater” while cleaning, and dump a series that remains highly popular after more than 25 years. For those unaware of the detail, although Taggart is STV’s best known programme, it is neither commissioned nor paid for by STV, but by the ITV network. In July 2009, rumours persisted of Taggart’s demise, and various claims and stories appeared in the media. All rumours regarding the demise of Taggart are denied by ITV.

However, the point of this entry not the ditching or otherwise of Taggart, serious as that may be, but the repeated assertion in the news at the moment that ITV is in difficulties, with falling revenues from advertising, and presumably viewer numbers.

Perhaps if ITV had sent someone to  the Edinburgh International TV Festival which has just taken place, then they might have heard the talk given by David Simon: BBC NEWS | Scotland | Wire writer says adverts kill TV

The creator of highly-acclaimed hard-hitting TV drama The Wire has said television can only be worthwhile when freed from the constraints of advertising.

David Simon was appearing at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.

He said: “Television as a medium, in terms of being literate and telling stories, has short-changed itself since its inception.

“That is because of advertising.”

Simon, whose work originates on US subscription cable channel HBO, said: “Only when television managed to liberate itself from the economic construct of advertising was there a real emancipation of story.

“American television up until the point of premium cable was about the interruptions every 13 minutes to sell you cars and jeans and whatever else.”

Sell products

He said the adverts became more important than the show.

“You had to bring the most number of eyeballs to that show and that meant dumbing down and making plots simple, gratifying people within the hour.”

He said they achieved this through the use of sex and “more stuff that blows up”.

Simon said HBO gave him 58 minutes where he was not interrupted by the need to sell products.

That meant he could concentrate on developing the story…

I wonder if anyone from ITV actually watches any of their output nowadays? I honestly doubt it. If they did, it surely wouldn’t be the hash it has become in recent years.

The aforementioned Taggart provides a clue. Often repeated on ITV4, it would seem they only have the right to recyle a few episodes now, or no-one can be bothered to walk to the archives and dig out another batch of episodes, so their output is a repeat of a repeat of a…

While the ad-breaks in the short episodes are semi-bearable, and can provide a handy intermission for a tea, coffee, or comfort break, their interruption of the longer special episodes is little short of criminal. And speaking of length, many of the ad-breaks are so long I can boil a kettle and make a mug of tea, together with a slice of buttered toast, and return before the programme has restarted. I can even go and do a timed 3-minute session on my exercise machine, and find the adverts are still running when I return!

First, we are subject to the incessant and mind-numbing repeats of the current sponsors tags at the beginning and end of the episode itself, and then at the beginning and end of every ad-break. The same stupid animation and voice repeated time after time certainly does nothing to convince me to do business with the sponsor. I not only use these things to make a boycott list, but cancelled every policy I once had with Standard Life because the constant repetition of their tags just became an irritation I wasn’t going to be forced to fund.

Second is the near hysterical increase in the rate of repeat of these things as the longer episodes draw to a climax, with the interval between interruptions falling to ten minutes, or less, as the climax approaches.

Third, and stupidest of all (assuming their aim is to win customers, rather than alienate them), is the last ad-break. To this viewer at least, these appear to be timed to take place just before the conclusion and summing up of the episode plot is carried out by the lead character, which can often take only a few minutes to complete, but those few minutes are preceded by that intrusive pair of sponsor tags around the ad-break, and followed only minutes later by the rolling of the  programme credits and , yes, you guessed, yet another running of that damned sponsor tag at the end of the credits.

And they wonder where their audience share – the people that are forced to fund the adverts – is going?

Or why it is heading for alternative sources for the same programme material, where it can be had without being spoilt by incessant, intrusive ad-breaks?

There is a fourth sin they commit, particularly on ITV4, and which they just repeated today, providing a convenient reminder and example.

Although they start out by showing many past series from the 1960s onwards, which is fine and welcome, they then waste the experience by repeating them too soon, and then breaking up the episode order. I enjoyed seeing series such as Lovejoy first time they were shown, then they re-appeared, then they re-appeared again,  and then they appeared to be shown at random. Although I wasn’t watching these later repeats, I could see they were no longer being shown in any sort of regular slot, so if I had been trying to watch the series, I couldn’t.

The current example is The Prisoner. This just completed a complete re-run a few weeks ago, which was fine, and enjoyable as they chose to show one episode per week, followed (one of) the)episode sequences. This made it much like watching the series as it was intended to be, in weekly episodes, rather than ITV’s more usual format of daily episodes.

However, almost immediately on completing this weekly showing, ITV4 then started sort of daily episodes. This appeared to comprise of two episodes repeated during the week, but on different days. It then seemed to change to three episodes per week, then went back to two, or maybe not, perhaps it was more, or less. It was impossible to tell without consulting a schedule days ahead of the broadcast.

This week, I expected to see an episode appear today (Tuesday), but a check showed nothing. There’s nothing scheduled tomorrow either, nor is there anything shown up to next Tuesday – I couldn’t be bothered looking further. Anyone who may have decided to actually watch the series to completion has just been unceremoniously shown two fingers – and dumped, with no idea when, or even if they will see the rest. Maybe ITV4 will just spontaneously restart the repeats from episode 1, or just pick up from where it left of, or maybe it will never be seen again. Whatever, it’s no way to treat an audience, and no way to keep it happy, and coming back for more of the same abuse.

This example provides another indication that ITV is clueless, and not looking at it’s own output, or even bothering about it’s audience. Had I been watching this run of The Prisoner – and the actual series concerned is irrelevant, it’s how they treat their viewers that matters – then I’d now be left hanging in mid-series, unaware of whether I will see the latter episodes or not. And there’s no point in suggesting I go look at the schedule – I shouldn’t have to. I should be able to trust ITV to at least finish broadcasting a series they began, not throw the episodes all over the schedule on different days and at different time, and be able to watch without having to employ the services of a fortune teller.

ITV’s revenues might pick up when they stop treating their audience not like idiots, but as customers, and as valued and important as those clients they are chasing to hand them money for advertising space.

No viewers = no revenue.

No revenue = no new programmes and no jobs.

British television production ends

The rise and rise of the various forms of thin, flat screen television (not to mention the cheap labour to our east) has finally put an end to large scale television production in the UK, and todays’ closure of Toshiba’s Ernesettle plant in Plymouth (Friday, August 28, 2009) follows production of its last television set the day before. Production will move to Poland as the company tries to keep pace in a market which the company has described as “fiercely competitive”, and seen the loss of 270 jobs.

The occasion is particularly significant, as the first practical television, and television service, was based on technology created by John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor from Helensburgh. His Televisor was demonstrated in 1925, and manufacture of his Model B began in 1926, by what was then the only television manufacturer in the world in – the Baird Corporation. A remarkable achievement, as the BBC would only start television broadcasts in 1929, so those who bought the sets had to be rich enthusiasts.

Baird’s system was mechanical, with all the problems inherent in providing television using such a system, but it did work, and was the first into service – but it was ultimately doomed as it became increasingly complex, and could not practically compete with later, fully electronic systems, which would ultimately displace it from 1934 onward.

Of course, both America and the Russia like to lay claim to being the inventors of television, and in truth, there were many others involved, such as Paul Nipkow, whose spinning disk system was at the heart of the Baird system, many years before Baird (the scanning disk was described about 1884, but probably never built, and predated the light sensors needed to be workable), but Baird was the one that took television to market first, as a practical, working system, and earned the accolade.

The whole CRT (cathode ray tube) sector has collapsed over the years. Mullard (Philips) once had a successful television factory in Durham, which I had the opportunity to visit on a number of occasions, but which was forced to close around 2005, after producing some 65 million CRTs over 34 years. Around 1990, it was given the job of producing a 21-inch CRT for £50, a task it not only achieved, but was to improve on over the years, and eventually bring its production cost down to less than half of the original figure. Visiting the factory in those days, as it was as busy as it could be, it would have been hard to believe any predictions that it was to disappear in the next few years.

Closer to home, Motherwell saw the arrival of Taiwanese manufacturer Chunghwa, with the opening of a CRT factory in 1995, but in the years it took to commission, the market changed, and market price of their product halved. Production changed from 14-inch computer monitor CRTs to 14-inch colour television CRTS, but by 2002 the factory had been closed.

Once the largest CRT manufacturer in Europe, it seems this country now has no such manufacturing facilities remaining.

Oldest UK television found – a 1936 Marconiphone

Philips projection television c. 1960

Way back in October 2008, we noted: Oldest television sought in Baird contest which referred to the launch of a competition by Ian Logie Baird,  curator of television at the National Media Museum in Bradford, and grandson of John Logie Baird, from Helensburgh, and something of a pioneer in the early days of television.

The winner was announced recently, and has been identified as a 1936 Marconiphone, thought to have been made in the months when Britain’s first “high-definition” television service began. The set belongs to Jeffrey Borinsky, an electrical engineer and collector of antique television and radio sets, who bought the set from another collector 10 years ago, and is still working on restoring it to its original state. The 12-inch (30 cm) screen screen is mounted inside a wooden cabinet, and the image from the cathode ray tube (CRT), which is mounted vertically inside the cabinet, is reflected onto a mirror. The set has few control, just a volume control and vertical hold adjustment, but notably has means of changing the channel – when it was manufactured, there was only one channel and broadcaster, the BBC.

Sadly, the former provider of television pictures at Apollo Towers was nowhere near the eventual winner, dating from 1960 or so, which is just as well, as it ended up in pieces – with the cabinet being used as wood for other projects, and the electronics being pressed into service elsewhere too, after the highly stressed CRT projection tube failed. The electrostatic deflection system was stripped out, and is still stored away as a thing of interest to be brought out and admired on dull days. The high quality glass bead projector screen survived, and is still used for slide projection, while the big speaker ended up in a bass-reflex cabinet, still stored away if needed.

Had the CRT not failed, it probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway. The high voltage needed to deflect the electron beam within the CRT, and produce sufficient brightness to allow the small screen – it was only about 3-inches in diameter – to throw a black & white image almost 5 feet wide, meant that many components were working under considerable electrical stress. Before the CRT went dark, the projection unit was emitting some fairly strange smells, and when it was dismantled, many of the capacitors were found to be on their last legs, physically coming apart and weeping. It was almost a surprise that it was working at all. TV repair engineers didn’t like it at all, as the chassis was live, and it was all too easy to brush close to something hot – which produced a lively and rapid response.

The oldest thing I think is still working here is a Smiths electric clock c. 1950, driven by that most reliable of devices, a synchronous electric motor. Provided the mains frequency stays at 50 Hz, this clock stays at the right time all the time, barring power cuts – which we still get occasionally. The only time it gets touched is during that twice yearly celebration of mass insanity, the moving of the clocks, as British Summer Time comes… and goes.

Everything else of the same age or older has either been lost to breakage, died, or worn out and died.

If you have something that might qualify, add a comment and let us know.

You never know, there could be a thrifty Scottish owner somewhere out there, with something tucked away that could beat that winning 1936 Marconiphone,

Patrick McGoohan R.I.P.

Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner Number 6

Those who look in here on a reasonably regular basis may have detected my appreciation for Patrick McGoohan and his part as Number Six in his 1960′s television series, The Prisoner, and it with some sadness that I note his passing:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show “The Prisoner,” has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said Wednesday.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama “Columbo,” and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film “Braveheart.”

But he was best known as the title character Number Six in “The Prisoner,” a surreal 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape.

Patrick McGoohan obituary, by Roger Langley (pdf)

Coincidentally, ITV 4 began a rerun of the original series only last week, making this airing somewhat more significant, and the recently completed remake of the series is also due for airing by ITV this year.

His parts in Columbo were also intriguing and usually rather special, with the added extra for Prisoner devotees, as he would usually slip a reference to the original series somewhere into the dialogue of the shabby detective’s story.

If for nothing else, I (and my family) are grateful to McGoohan and his choice of the Welsh village of Portmeirion, created by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, as the setting for his original, classic series, especially once we discovered it was real place, and that we could jump in the car and be there the same day. One of the fascinating aspects of the trip was the similarity of North Wales to Scotland, and how noticeable the difference (or should that be similarity to home) was once one had left England and driven on for an hour or so.

A view over The Village - Portmeirion

Patrick McGoohan and Clough Williams-Ellis

Original series promotional footage

Unadulterated Prisoner theme music

Be seeing you.

Prepare to be upset

Don’t read any further of you’re a football fan!

I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading the first time I saw the original story, and had to re-read it to make sure I hadn’t had a Rip Van Winkle moment and hibernated over winter all the way from the beginning of October to April 1. But, no, it was still October when I checked on the net.

Personally, I’d waken up happy if both Coronation Street (or rather soaps) in general) and football had vanished while I’d been asleep, but I guess that’s not going to happen, ever, so I just have to avoid them as best I can, however when they pop up in the news, that plan fails miserably

I don’t know which I find the more incredible in this report: ITV’s capitulation, or the apparently fragile emotions of Rangers’ fans. I’d have thought both were made of sterner stuff.

After some (Scottish) character in the soap uttered the line “I could no more be interested in Rosie Webster than I could support Glasgow Rangers”, ITV said that line seemed “to have caused some upset”, and that “dozens” of complaints had been received.

For goodness sake! I thought the idea behind soaps was their “cutting-edge, real-life plots”. What else would such a character be likely to say under stress?

As a result, one of the character’s lines in a future episode – reported to be a remark that he was allergic to “warm beer, the English national anthem and Glasgow Rangers” – has now been dropped.

I’m allergic to TV soap operas and football, and I think I’ll add weak-kneed television companies ready to compromise their independence in fear of upsetting advertising revenue and sponsors, which I think is probably more at the root of their decision than the actual upsetting, and what they should have done was ensure that some sort of balance was written into the script, and found another character who would stand up and say that Celtic gave him the boak.

My old grandfather (passed on long ago), born before the turn of the century and from Bridgeton, was a football fanatic and even claimed to have spent some time training the players at Parkhead, but he turned his back on the whole thing long before he retired, and said it was just all rotten. I always thought he was a wise old man.

Ok, you can stop not reading now if you’re a football fan