How RTE aced colour
QUESTION
When was the first regular colour television transmission in the State and what was the show? SPORTS programmes were the first to be televised regularly in colour by RTÉ in the early-Seventies, but it took until 1976 for The Late Late Show to be transmitted in colour.
RTÉ began investing in colour television transmissions in the late-Sixties and the first colour transmission by the station happened by accident in June 1968.
The station was taking a live feed of coverage of the men’s finals at Wimbledon from the BBC, where Australian Rod Laver was vying for his third title. The feed should have been converted to a format suitable for black and white televisions when it got to RTÉ, but it is said that the technician responsible forgot to make the changeover. As a consequence, an unknown number of RTÉ viewers were surprised to see Mr Laver win the first Wimbledon of the open era in full colour.
In the UK, viewers of BBC 2 had been able to watch colour TV since 1969. BBC 1 and ITV made the switch in 1969. By that year, RTÉ was able to take colour programmes from the UK and the US, which had become the first country in the world to introduce regular TV programming in colour in 1953.
The first Irish-produced programme to go out in colour was one about John Hume’s Derry, which went out under the banner of the Seven Days investigative series. Then the GAA Railway Cup finals were televised in colour. Both were transmitted just before the 1971 Eurovision Song contest which was transmitted in colour in April of that year.
Dana from Derry had won the 1970 Eurovision, which meant that the 1971 final came to Dublin. It was staged in the Gaiety Theatre and transmitted in colour here, as well as in 20 countries across Europe. The show was introduced by Bernadette Ní Gallchóir and the interval entertainment came from Bunratty performers.
After that, the conversion of RTÉ’s output to colour began in earnest. Sports programmes were the first to be transmitted in colour, along with films and programmes from the Eurovision network.
The work of converting to colour the studios at Montrose, as well as the outside broadcast units, began in 1972. The news studios weren’t converted until 1974 and the largest studio of all, Studio 1, used for The Late Late Show, wasn’t converted until 1976, completing the process. Ironically, two of RTÉ’s biggest television shows in the Seventies, The Late Late Show and Hall’s Pictorial Weekly, were among the last to change from black and white to colour.
In the early days of colour TV in Ireland, the sets were expensive, bulky and not always reliable, but soon, they became much more affordable. Take-up was slow: in 1973 the number of households with colour sets stood at 27,000.
Now, full colour has long been the norm and black and white transmissions are now seen as archaic, seen only on occasion, and during Reeling In The Years.
Martin Kelly, Via email.
QUESTION
In 1960, Billy Butlin, the holiday camp owner, organised a John O’Groats to Land’s End walking race in the UK. How many people took part and who won? ON FRIDAY, February 26, 1960, a ramshackle army of more than 700 walkers set off from John O’Groats in Scotland for Land’s End in Cornwall, 1500 kilometres away. All types, all sizes, all nationalities were there – many totally unprepared for the weather in the north of Scotland, and the 10ft snow drifts that greeted them.
There were farmers, university graduates, mechanics, clerks, waitresses, at least two peers of the realm and the unemployed.
One man had a wooden l eg, another was blind. None had any of the waterproof, high-tech gear available today, and all were expected to provide their own accommodation and food, and complete the race in 28 days. Billy Butlin offered £1,000 prizes each for the first man and women to finish – enough to buy a house in 1960, and total prize money of more than £5,000.
Butlin defied calls from the authorities to call off the race, but the weather was so bad, and the competitors so unprepared, that more than 150 gave up on the first day. The rest struggled on southward.
Despite Butlin’s efforts to police the race with checkpoints, cheating was rife with competitors cadging lifts in lorries and cars. Nonetheless, the race became a media sensation as it proceeded south. All competitors wore a number, so were clearly identifiable, and town bands and Lord Mayors turned out to greet them. The race leaders became minor celebrities, followed by autograph hunters.
The men’s race was won by 38year-old Jimmy Musgrave in 14 days, 14 hours 32 minutes — more than 100 kilometres a day. The women’s race was won by a 19- year- old apprentice hairdresser from Liverpool, Wendy Lewis, in 16 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes. More than 170 competitors finished within the 28day cut-off, the youngest being 16year-old R. Seales, of Swindon, the oldest Mrs A. Nicholas of Camelford, Cornwall.
Butlin was so impressed by the competitors’ Stakhanovite efforts that he awarded many extra prizes.
The Big Walk, by A. Walker (pub. 1960), is an entertaining account of this forgotten chapter in sporting history.
Stephen Magill, Toulouse, France.
QUESTION
Where is the longest continuous straight line stretch of railway track in the world? THIS is a 480km stretch of line across the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia. It is part of the Trans-Australian Railway that stretches from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The track is standard gauge railway, 4ft 8 ½in, though the state railway systems at both ends were narrow gauge at the time. There are speed restrictions, some very severe, on the route owing to the unstable nature of the ground and the desert nature of the area which is considered to be severely inhospitable.
The line was completed in 1917 and is mainly single track with passing loops.
Alan Bowden, Bristol.
QUESTION
Did an African country once have a flag depicting an AK47? FURTHER to the earlier answer, the East Timor coat of arms also features a picture of an AK47. The emblem/coat of arms of East Timor was adopted on January 18, 2007.
It features an upside-down shield with a red border symbolising Mount Ramelau, the highest peak in the country. The shield shows a fivepointed star with five rays of light, an open red book resting upon a yellow industrial gear, a rice and corn ear and an Avtomat Kalashnikova47 assault weapon crossed with a golden-yellow spear above a Timorese bow. The AK-47 represents the struggle of the people to attain national independence and their willingness to protect it.
Lee Alatas, Edinburgh.