UKC

We were just talking about when we had our first TV sets as a child in the bedroom, and what we watched when it should have been off and should have been sleeping !

I had a ‘switching off time’ of 8pm and the TV ‘had’ to go off, but I put it back on and ended up watching all sorts of things. It was obviously just BBC1,2 HTV SC4 then.

I enjoyed Dirty Harry a lot, I was already a Clint fan at the age of 9. There were numerous horror films that gave me many sleepless nights, and Prisoner Cell Block H was a good Soap back then to.

L

In reply to lone:

TV in the bedroom? No we had one TV for everyone in the living room, as was normal back in the late 1960s & 70s

Bedtime was for reading by torchlight after 'lights out'

In reply to lone:

Russ Meier films on channel five. very instructive they were.

In reply to lone:

Ghost. And it's haunted me ever since.

In reply to lone:

Never had a TV in my room, so I suppose the equivalent would be when I was old enough to be left at home looking after my sister when my parents were out. I can vividly remember the first time that happened - I watched Doogie Howser MD! Later I used to watch The Word and Eurotrash, neither of which I particularly liked but it felt as though I was making the most of not being chaperoned.

In reply to lone:

First time I had a tv in my room was when I started my PhD, a black and white portable, and as I came back from the shop the world was full of emergency sirens and it was clear something terrible had happened - the Clapham rail disaster.

I can't remember the first thing I watched on it, but I do remember the first thing I ever saw on the colour tv my parents bought in the mid 70s: the Magic Roundabout. We squealed in delight when we discovered Brian Snail (a favourite character) was yellow and red

In reply to lone:


Never heard of HTV - what channel was that?

In reply to lone:

Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Stingray, WoodenTops, Andy Pandy. (all the first time around)
I feel really old

In reply to lone:

Hill Street Blues, Cheers, The Tube and great old Laurel and Hardy films which were shown on BBC2 on Friday evenings.

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

The Coronation.
"Really old" is a relative concept ...

In reply to subtle:


Presumably the ITV regional TV company.

In reply to lone:
Outer limits, the equaliser, then got caught watching eurotrash and the TV was promptly removed from the bedroom. Bad times.

In reply to lone:

My parents were definitely anti-TV in the bedroom. If we watched TV it was "together as a family", etc, etc.. I did have a small black and white TV in the corner of the kitchen for my Atari 2600 (a consolation prize for suddenly not being an only child after 10 years - or more likely to keep me out of my parents' hair while they coped with a surprise new baby).

In reply to lone:

TV in bedroom as a kid?

One TV in main living room is all I've ever known.

In reply to lone:

The first time I ever watched TV was the 2nd June 1953 when along with other service families we watched the Queen's Coronation live in the Officers Mess at RAF (as it was then) Middle Wallop. It was in black and white. I was aged 9. No one we knew owned a TV in those days, which is why we all congregated in the Mess where there was one.

In reply to lone:

Eurotrash

In reply to lone:

My Mum used to go out on a Monday night and I remember watching Up Pompeii and then The Sweeney as a kid. The smuttiness and swearing/sex definitely wouldn't have been allowed if she'd been in.

Feels like 100 years ago

In reply to lone:

The first thing I recall watching on our family B&W was torchy the Battery boy. gripping stuff. apparently available in it's entirety on DVD.

In reply to fromsinkingships:

Ditto. But only if I was absolutely sure my younger brother in the lower bunk was fast asleep!

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:
Don't forget
Noggin the Nog
The son of King Knut

In reply to robert-hutton:




And Nogbad the Bad. Makes game of thrones look tame.
While I'm at it, I remember Churchill's funeral in B&W.
Mom and Dad got our first colour telly in 1970 to watch the World Cup. Saw the finest international side of modern times (Brazil) show everyone how the beautiful game should be played.
Only bettered by the AC Milan side with the Dutch up front and Italian defence. Sublime football.

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:



Four Feather Falls?

In reply to Fredt:

William Tell. The Lone Ranger. Which spookily used the William Tell overture as its theme tune...

In reply to Fredt:


I remember a few episodes of Supercar, but I think FFF was too early.
Watching The Prisoner on a little b&w television was a life changing experience

In reply to lone:
Banana splits, Star Trek (original series) Captain Scarlet were my favourites but it was heavily regulated by my Mother who wasn't keen on Telly! generally we didn't watch much by todays standards. very early 70's.

In reply to lone:

I had a little black n white one with a round wire ariel ontop, and a carrying handle, in a stunning cream and grey. Once you'd tuned in the dial on the front to one of the three channels available BBC1,2 and ITV which closed down between 11 and midnight, you then had to twist and bend this thing around to get a picture through the black n white fuzz. Whenever a taxi went down the street I would lose reception completely.
I used to watch the Lone ranger, Harold Loyd, and back then Laurel and Hardy were on quite regularly. I know there were others I can't remember, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind.

In reply to lone:

I really liked that one with the little girl and the clown doll playing noughts and crosses on a blackboard. Watched it for hours.

In reply to The New NickB:

Yep, Harlech TV was for the Wales/Southwest.

In reply to Removed User:

Slightly OT but there's a "digitally remastered" version of the original series currently airing on one of the Freeview channels. The bits that are merely 'remastered' are looking really good, but they've also chucked in a lot of little bits of CGI, to enhance some of the original effects I suppose, and they're *really* jarring.

Edit to add an on-topic bit:
I had a little B&W portable as a teenager, but don't remember a thing I watched on it. After going away to Uni I didn't have my own telly again for a few years until I was given a hand-me-down by a mate's parents, complete with Betamax video. (Woo.)

I mostly remember recording and watching episodes of 'Northern Exposure', loved it!
At some point I'm going to track it down on DVD and see if it's dated now, and whether it really was as good as I remember.

In reply to Pbob:

Found it a bit weird and creepy, My dislike of clowns could have either caused or been due to that...not sure which.

In reply to subtle:

Welsh channel, Harlech Television, they were shite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_Wales_%26_West#History

Never had, and never will have, a TV in my bedroom, destroys sleep.

In reply to Pbob:

Clearly the Beeb getting us used to the idea that grooming of little girls was perfectly OK....

In reply to Dominicandave:


I had exactly the same TV.
The only thing I distinctly remember watching was TJ Hooker, a cop show from the state's and I only remember that because when I upgraded to a colour portable that one program didn't look right and I carried on watching it in black and white.

In reply to Fredt:


Four Feather Falls was the earliest thing that I remember,but only just.I seem to remember the dog, possibly called Rusty, and Calamacooja(spelling?) the indian.

In reply to lone:
Only one TV in the house and I used to be given the useless valve when the TV engineer made his not infrequent visits. I hadn't considered until now that a broken TV might not have been a luxury a small child would allow parents.

I remember Torchie when it first came on so those of you in your 50s must have seen repeats.

The earliest thing I do remember being on around that time, perhaps repeated was something that I used to call "Pongo the dragon" but which seems to have been this - anyone else remember it?

http://www.turnipnet.com/whirligig/tv/children/other/rubovia.htm

PS just listened to the sound clip of the the theme tune and it took me back to being pre-school instantly!

Also the wonderful British Space Patrol series with its Galispheres and eccentric but humorous puppet cast and environmentalist themes was far ahead of its time. I see that the it is said to have inspired the creator of Babylon 5.

The maneating plants of Venus terrified me as did the genuine period electronic music used in the series.

In reply to lone:

The first TV I actually had in my bedroom was used as a 16 line x 32 character display for a Microtan 65 self-build computer. There is an admission.

In reply to lone:

Some of my earliest memories of our TV involved putting a 50p piece in the back of it to make it function.
When we were very small me and my siblings watched 'watch with mother' and other classics like Trumpington. I can clearly remember the extended power cuts in the early 70s and Doctor Who being on the TV on a Saturday evening and then suddenly and unexpectedly the power cutting out. A candle and a book and a cold tea were the only offerings.

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:



Don't worry. I remember Rag, Tag and Bobtail.

In reply to lone:
Queens coronation in 1953' half the street crammed in to watch a screen the size of an I Pad. Remember watching Rag Tag and Bobtail, and the Wooden Tops along with Andy Pandy. Never had a telly in my bedroom, still don't.
Someone said do you remember Muffin the mule, I said those charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence!

In reply to john spence:


Exactly my experience. The telly was bought specially for the occasion - lots of them were.

Also remember Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and yes, Muffin the Mule, though Annette Mills died soon after and took Muffin with her.

In reply to Andy Long:

my first experience of ropework as very young child was to recreate a hangman's rope from "Lone Ranger" and nearly kill myself with it - didn't take me long to realise my mistake, no fun at all. I didn't tell my mother.

In reply to lone:

Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, c. 1954 on a neighbour's telly - which was a huge bakelite box with a very small screen, not much bigger than a large postcard.

In reply to Trangia:


Fail to see why somebody has given you a dislike for that.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


Went round to someone´ s house to watch Princess Margarets wedding, hmmmm.

In reply to FesteringSore:


Probably a Republican - if there were such people in 1953 Britain!?

In reply to colinakmc:

They used to say that the definition of an intellectual was someone who could listen to the William Tell overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger

In reply to lone:

White Heather Club anyone?

In reply to lone:

B&W TV in the sitting room.

Bill and Ben
Tales of the Riverbank
Camberwick Green
Andy Pandy

I think those are the earliest for me - mid 60's I suppose

In reply to wercat:


Watched religiously in our house. It didn't stop me settling in Scotland though, even if I did overshoot it a bit.

In reply to lone:

The Black and White Minstrel Show!

In reply to lone:

Earliest would have been the Woodentops but not in bedroom. Bring back the Shadoks! We wouldn't have had Brexit if the Shadoks were still on TV.

In reply to hang_about:

I used to be well scared of 'The singing ringing tree'. I think it was a German folk tale of a series called The Tinderbox, the dwarf on it was a bastard...

In reply to lone:

I can't remember those days, but I recall getting our first colour telly, and the days of waiting a minute for the valves to warm up before you could watch anything. Ours was rented from Radio Rentals, and the man would come round once a year and service it! pulling valves out and the like.

I do remember getting our first video recorder - again rented from Radio Rentals. It was about the time of the launch of Channel 4, and the first programme I recorded was Rockschool on BBC2, and then on Channel 4 - Eiger Solo - the ascent by Eric Jones.

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Fireball XL5 for me too.
On a weekend we would visit my grandparents and I remember this. Watched on about a 6-8”, black and white screen fitted into a RadioGram.
It sticks in my mind as we didn’t have a TV at home until many years after.
No TV, no phone (not even a fixed one), no laptops, no tablets. Try telling that to kids today.

In reply to deepsoup:

Loved Northern Exposure, think Twin peaks was around at the same time.

In reply to lone:
We only had a small TV in the sitting room (we only had one room, we sat there). My earliest memory is of Twizzle. Scared the shit out of me. Other than that I remember Andy Pandy, Wooden Tops, Bill and Ben. Then Four Feather Falls. I'll bet not many remember FFF.

*sitting room = living room.

In reply to LittleRob:

Personally I can't listen to the Lone Ranger overture without thinking about William Tell😄

In reply to lone:

The moon landing, apparently, can't remember as I was only 2. Telly was rented specially for the occasion and then became part of the household, remember watching Bill and Ben, potty time, Mr Ben etc!
About 5 year ago I gave up on telly all together when they turned off our analog and I would have to invest, didn't miss it really. Then last year, I had some money so thought I'd buy a small telly and a licence. Don't no what I was thinking, it will be gone as soon as the licence comes up for renewal!

In reply to Aztec Bar:

I reckon we must be of a similar age, and everybody I know of our vintage was scared shitless by the "Singing Ringing Tree"!
As well as the dwarf, there was also an ice cave, a witch and a bear, and a load of magic. The odd thing is, my German g/f is the same age, but seems to have no knowledge of it.

JW

In reply to lone:
Muffin The Mule - which contrary to popular opinion wasn't a programme about bestiality. Not that I knew anything about such things back in the early 1950's age about 5?

In reply to John Ww:


There was a great Radio 4 program where they tracked down the original cast. It was Eastern block ideology - the ugly dwarf etc were the good guys whilst the beautiful princess was a spoiled brat. She was 're-educated' by contact with them (hence the fish wouldn't let her ride it until the end). A local artist made an effing great big stainless steel fish very similar to this. Was well tempted to make an offer an install it in the garden.

In reply to wercat:


You'd have been better off with an original Baird spinning disc scanner telly from the 1930s.

In reply to Mark Edwards:



Or flush toilets perhaps. In 1950 we lived high on the moors above Saddleworth and once a week the "Dan Men" came round in a tanker wagon to empty the Elsans. Big, cheery ruddy-faced guys they were, presumably happy in the knowledge that they were doing a real public service. The dignity of labour and all that.

Nothing to do with telly of course, except there seem to be more crap programs these days.

In reply to lone:

Also Fireball xl5. Around that time also remember Torchie the Battery Boy and I think Twizzle the boy who could extend his arms by twisting them. It was cutting edge in those days.

In reply to lone:

Still no TV in the bedroom. But, first TV memory was Bill and Ben. All downhill since then.

In reply to lone:

All the kids in the street used to go to my pal's house to watch the Cisco Kid as they were the only ones who had a telly.
I can remember The Woodentops; Rag Tag and Bobtail; and Picture Book where a lady sat in front of the screen and brought out a tray of objects like spoons and scissors. We were all invited to cover our eyes then she took something off the tray and we had to spot what was missing. Lovely TV...

In reply to lone:

I can't remember, but everything we did watch was in a torrent of regularly descending frames and a kind of snowstorm of clutter.
Banging a fist on the top of the telly never fixed the vertical hold, but we lived in hope.

In reply to Aztec Bar:

If you're mentioning the singing ringing tree (which I hated), we have to flag up Belle and Sebastian, classic summer holiday fare!

Along with Daktari, Robinson Crusoe and the Whirlybirds.

In reply to deepsoup:



I certainly remember Janine Turner. In my mind she remains that late 20s feisty beauty. In real life she's still the same age as me some 25 years later. Thank you Wikipedia. Perhaps I'd have a chance if my pounding heart wouldn't drown out my words.

In reply to lone:

Flashing Blade anyone?

In reply to BnB:

I certainly remember Maggie O'Connell. I too would have been willing to risk getting hit by a falling satellite. :O)

Went right off Janine Turner though, when she popped up campaigning for (and turned out to be almost as completely hatstand as) Sarah Palin in 2008.

In reply to nniff:

Pogles Wood?

In reply to lone:

Never had a TV in my room, we had one black and white CRT monster (deeper than wide, and emitting a scary buzzing sound when turned on) in our sitting room that needed slapping on the top every half hour or so until the tube had properly warmed up. I don´t know which movies or series I first watched, but recently came across some animated films that apparently were originally broadcast in absolutely lurid colours. I am really glad that in my memory they are simply different shades of grey! Thinking of it, the same applies for the Muppet Show! Kermit is grey....

That said, the first scenes I can remember watching on telly are one of the later Apollo moon landings, bits from the Munich Olympics (my parents even took me to see some events live), and of course the footage of American helicopters plucking people off the embassy roof in Saigon in spring 1975.

CB

In reply to Jenny C:



Yes a tv you said to get off your backside to change. We did have a binatone console with hockey and tennis with realistic sound effects. Ha ha

In reply to lone:
(The Old Grey) Whistle Test

9pm, Tuesdays

In reply to lone:

Dixon of Dock Green

Z cars

In reply to BnB:

Janine Turner...ooooohhh yes!!!

JW

In reply to lone:

We had only one TV in the house until the mid 90s when my Dad bought a tiny 10" TV for the camper van which was kept in my bedroom when not being used for camping.

Didn't watch it much to be honest but remember watching stuff like The Fast Show, and Eurotrash (ooh err, when the all new Channel 5 was a bit risque)

In reply to lone:
The Coronation of Elizabeth the second.
Actually we were the first family in our street to get a TV and the whole street came in to watch the FA cup final live.

In reply to Colin Scotchford:

Oh yes! I remember that!

In reply to Andy Long:
Shame we can't have the Dan my back to empty the TV set once a week... They'd be kept busy!

In reply to lone:

1957. My earliest memories are all muddled up between the arrival of television and the arrival of my younger brother. Not sure which was most important.

In reply to lone:
Andy Pandy, Bill and Ben, Woodentops and the disappearing white dot.

I remember the newsflash announcing that Churchill had suffered a stroke which was on Jan 15th 1965 (I now know) but we'd had the TV for some time before that.

Never had a TV in the bedroom, nor did my kids.