BBC1, BBC2 and ITV — and sometimes nothing at all.
In 1960s and ’70s Britain, television was a very different experience. Today, there are hundreds of channels to choose from, with satellite, cable, and the internet giving options from around the world. It’s now possible to spend more time scrolling endlessly looking for something to watch than actually watching.
There was a time when the choice was simple.
In the early 1960s, there were just three television channels: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. And BBC2 didn’t arrive until 1964.
And that was it.
A Nation Watching the Same Family Favourites
With so few options, television became a shared national experience in a way that’s hard to imagine today. Families across the country watched the same programmes at the same time.
Favourite programmes were watched by millions. When the weekly stats came out showing what we had watched, the top programmes would often have viewing figures of ten to twenty million.
And there were times when everyone did seem to be watching the same thing.
England’s world cup win over West Germany in 1966, shown live by both BBC and ITV, was watched by 32.3 million people.
The Apollo 13 splashdown was watched by 28.6 million.
I was too young for England’s win, but I do remember watching a number of Apollo splashdowns. Thirteen must have been one of them.
The next day, conversations at work or school often began with:
“Did you see that last night?”
And most people had.
Big moments on television felt bigger because everyone experienced them together.
BBC1, BBC2 and ITV
Each channel had its own identity.
BBC1 was the main channel. The BBC had been around for years. The first radio and then television broadcaster in Britain. It was why we had a television licence. Because of the licence, it was also advertisement free.
ITV was the commercial alternative. Each region had its own ITV channel, like Thames TV, Anglia and Grenada. It had many popular shows, but as soon as those advertisements came on, someone would shout out, “Not another one.” The steady flow of breaks for commercials were never popular.
I never came across anyone who ever said they bought something because they saw an ad “on the telly”.
BBC2 was launched in 1964, and was considered a little more experimental, highbrow, and initially not available across the whole of the country. I seem to remember that it was the home of anything a little different, not seen as mainstream.
Even Fawlty Towers was originally broadcast on BBC 2, in 1975 and 79.
No Daytime TV
And television didn’t run all day.
For much of the 60s and 70s, daytime broadcasting was limited.
There were programmes for schools, and also the Open University. Mostly on the BBC. The average OU lecture was presented by someone with long hair, a beard and wearing corduroy trousers. They might have a blackboard behind them covered in diagrams of thermodynamics, or of the vote share of parties during the Weimar Republic in Germany.
If you turned over to ITV, you might be presented with a hiss and a blank screen, nothing to watch there during the day. Screens for all channels were often blank for hours at a time, until the official start time of the days programmes.
Morning and afternoon television as we know it today, simply didn’t exist.
For children, this meant that if you were home during the day, there was nothing to watch — other than those programmes for schools. Television was something that happened in the evening, not something you dipped into throughout the day.
Television was limited.
Closedown
Perhaps the most striking difference of all between then and now was what happened at night. There was no 24/7 television. No late-night scrolling. No “just one more episode to watch” of binge viewing. When the television for the night stopped, it stopped. At night, it closed down.
Except, in a way, it typically didn’t.
A few things happened to end our day.
The first was the epilogue.
This began on the BBC in 1926 and was essentially a religious end to the day. A moment of reflection. Initially it offered Bible readings by a vicar or clergyman, but as time passed, hymns were added. It was all very Christian and amateur and came to an end in 1980.
Then the national anthem would play, usually with a picture of the Queen. Some adults, especially the older generation, would actually stand in silence, until it finished. Some might even salute at the television, as if the Queen was officially watching us.
“Don’t turn it off until the anthem is finished.” Might be heard.
Finally, what followed was the test card.
It presented a static image that often remained on screen until broadcasts resumed the next day. The image was of a young girl playing noughts and crosses on a blackboard. Next to her was a somewhat freaky looking clown doll.
Not sure how that was supposed to get us to sleep.
I can’t remember if ITV had a test card, but at some point the screen just went blank, with a hiss of static. That was your signal: the day was over. Time to go to bed, and be ready for work or school in the morning.
Unless you were studying with the Open University. From the 1970s, lectures and classes would regularly be shown after closedown, and early in the day. Perhaps they thought that students were used to late nights, and that was the best time to show them.
Planning What to Watch
With only three channels, watching television required some thought and planning.
This was a time when there was often only one television in the house, usually in the living room. The television was also the only technology that could receive television pictures. And until video recorders came along in the 70s, there was no option to watch again, record and watch later.
And often, there was no repeat. The BBC is frequently criticized for the number of repeats it shows, but at the time, many programmes were regularly only shown once. If you missed it, you missed it, and you might never see it again.
Families had to rely on a listings' magazine like the Radio Times, TV Times, or a daily newspaper, circling the programmes they didn’t want to miss. If two programmes clashed, a choice had to be made, but there was no voting involved. The adults had all the power, and arguments could easily start, especially as the BBC and ITV were in competition with each other. They would often put their most popular programmes on at the same time, up against each other.
Whoever chose what we watched, might then be met with the immortal words, “I’m not watching that, I’m going down the pub.”
Finally, we would settle down for a night's entertainment, but if you had to change channels to find something else, that wasn’t as straightforward as today, either. The television had a dial, switch or button, rather than remote controls. Someone had to get up to change the channel. That task was often given to children.
“Turn it over to ITV for us and save my feet,” an adult voice would instruct us.
Then, when the remote control did finally make an appearance, whoever held it had power over everyone else. The early days of doom-scrolling started back then.
Fewer Choices, Greater Impact
It might sound limiting, but having fewer channels meant programmes had a greater impact. Shows attracted huge audiences because there was little competition.
Television felt more like an event.
Even children’s programmes, when they finally arrived, were often shown for a few hours after school. You watched what was on, like Blue Peter, Crackerjack and Jackanory, and made the most of it. In the 70s, children's daytime television was introduced, to help us through the long school holiday.
The Open University was demoted to earlier and later times.
Looking Back
Things began to change in the 1980s with the arrival of Channel 4, and then Channel 5. Eventually satellite and cable television came along and choice expanded. Viewing habits began to shift, as new technology allowed us to view television, without the need for a television set.
Today, the idea of having only three channels, one television in the home, and nothing on for much of the day, seems almost unimaginable. Yet for those who grew up in that era, it felt entirely normal, because it was the norm.
We had less choice, certainly. But there was also less distraction.
I don’t think any of us could imagine what it would become.
Image by Harry Munday, CC BY-SA 4.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicense via Wikimedia Commons
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