Hey, OG, hairgoo

This is a typical Saturday's viewing from 1965 (24 July)
BBC1
5.15 Juke Box Jury
5.40 Dr Who: Checkmate
6.05 News, weather
6.15 Cricket
6.35 The 1965 Royal Tournament
7.20 Western
8.50 Summer Comedy Hour
9.55 The Flying Swan
10.40 News
10.50 The Andy Williams Show
11.40 Weather

BBC2
6.55 News
7.00 Sport of the Day
7.50 Montreux Festival 1965
8.20 The Big Stride
8.45 Legend of Death
9.10 Cinema 625
10.40 News Summary
10.42 Late Night Line-up
Midland ITV (ABC)
1.10 Summer Sport (Water skiing, racing, athletics,
motor-racing, wrestling)
5.5 Sports Round-up
5.15 Sir Francis Drake
5.45 News from ITN
5.50 Lucky Stars - Summer Spin
6.30 Opportunity Knocks
7.20 Hong Kong
8.15 The Best of Morcambe and Wise
8.50 Hawaiian Eye
9.40 News
9.50 Ghost Squad
10.45 Mainly Millicent
11.20 ABC Weekend, weather, Epilogue Close Down

London ITV offered the same schedule except:
5.15 - 5.45 The Forest Rangers
7.20 The Saint
8.15 The Great Van Robbery
9.20 The Best of Morecambe and Wise
10.00 News
10.10 Undermind: Onset of Fear
11.5 Milligan's Wake
11.35 Four Just Men, weather, Epilogue.

Yes that's right television on BBC1 started at 5.15pm - although in other months "Grandstand" would have been shown on Saturday afternoon.

The "Western" on BBC1 was "Flame of the Barbary Coast" staring John Wayne and Ann Dvorak. "The Great Van Robbery" was a film about a daring robbery of a Royal Mint van. BBC2's "Cinema 625" was a Czech film called "Transport from Paradise" about concentration camps.

The "Summer Comedy Hour" BBC1 (8.50pm) was a play "Almost a honeymoon", by Walter Ellis. It made it's debut in the West End in 1930. In 1965, a play written in 1930 would have been considered old fashioned, rather than nostalgic. ITV's offering "Undermind" was a thriller about a sinister organisation that was trying to disrupt Western Society. This kind of theme was fairly common in sixties film and TV. At 7.20 on ITV London you could see "The Saint" staring Roger Moore.

Man walks on the Moon - in colour
Colour television was first broadcast at the end of 1967. In this era colour television sets were very expensive and take-up was slow. Originally colour could only be received on BBC2 - ITV and BBC1 were first shown in colour in 1969. In 1969, BBC2 viewers were able to see shots from the Moon in colour. The Moon landing itself was broadcast at 3.56am on a programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore, James Burke and Patrick Moore. Coverage had begun at 11.30pm the previous night and continued throughout the night - a real rarity in this era.

In 1969 the BBC was busy converting existing programmes to colour - "The Troubleshooters", "The Doctors", "Z cars" and "Softly, Softly" all went out in colour that year.

Posted By: CB41, Dec 5, 12:55:10