May 15, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6SmOBxP9-g ; Test 2
Test 2 takes you to a Youtube Video of BBC Testcard F featuring the instrumental piece ‘Voy, Voy, Voy’ from BBC2 cia 1971-1972. The video is 10 minutes long and contains a number of pieces of music and features Carole Hersee and Bubbles the Clown who together have been shown on television for about 70,000 hours (That’s 8 years!). Test Card F traditionally appeared during dead air on BBC1 and BBC2.
Creepy enough for you? (Source: Wikipedia )
Wiki gives the following history of Test Card F:
Test Card F is a test card that was created by the BBC and used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programmes were being broadcast, but was the first to be transmitted in colour in the UK and the first to feature a person,[1] and has become an iconic British image regularly subject to parody.
The central image on the card shows eight-year-old Carole Hersee, playing noughts and crosses with a clown doll, Bubbles the Clown, surrounded by various greyscales and colour test signals needed to ensure a correct picture. It was first broadcast on 2 July 1967 (the day after the first colour pictures appeared to the public on television) on BBC2.
The card was developed by a BBC engineer, George Hersee, father of the girl in the central image. It was frequently broadcast during downtime on BBC1 until that channel went fully 24 hours in November 1997, and on BBC Two until its downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax in 1998, after which it was only seen during engineering work, and was last seen in this role in 1999.
Posts in the comments on Youtube state that the harmonica track is titled ‘Johanna’ and performed by the Guy Luypaerts Orchestra.
Interestingly enough ‘Testcard Girl’ was portrayed in a rather Chieftan Mews-ish role as a character in the original BBC series of Life on Mars broadcast in 2006-2007 where she appears first inside the television and then in visions providing the main character with comments relating to his life and things that where going to happen.
She also repeatedly taunts him and occasionally scares him out of his wits with quotes such as “You don’t like me and my clown, I can see I make you frown. When on earth will all this end? I’m you’re friend, you’re only friend.”
You can read more about Test Card F on Wiki here including links to download your own copy of Test Card F if you feel so inclined. While it’s tempting link to Testcard Girl’s role in Life on Mars I’d suggest hunting up the entire series instead to avoid spoilers. It’s well worth the effort.
