Who is the girl on the test card?
Carole Hersee is unrecognisable now. MOST of us will be familiar with the ‘Test Card Girl’ – the little girl who appeared on our screens when there was no programming on-air. The little girl, along with her equally famous toy clown, was Carole Hersee – who was eight-years old when she had the photo taken in 1967.
Who is the Test Card Girl in Life on Mars?
Rafaella Hutchinson
The Test Card Girl is a recurring fictional character of BBC One’s science fiction/police procedural drama Life on Mars. The character is portrayed by Rafaella Hutchinson in Series 1 and Harriet Rogers in Series 2….
| Test Card Girl | |
|---|---|
| Series: | Life on Mars (UK) |
| Actor: | Rafaella Hutchinson (Series 1) Harriet Rogers (Series 2) |
What was the purpose of the test card?
Used since the earliest TV broadcasts, test cards were originally physical cards at which a television camera was pointed, allowing for simple adjustments of picture quality. Such cards are still often used for calibration, alignment, and matching of cameras and camcorders.
When did BBC stop using the test card?
It was frequently broadcast during daytime downtime on BBC Television until 29 April 1983 and was still seen before the start of programmes until BBC1 began to broadcast 24 hours a day in November 1997, and on BBC2 until its downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax in 1998, after which it was only seen …
How old is the Test Card Girl now?
Those viewers will be familiar with the test card girl – the girl who appeared on screens when there was no programme on air. That girl was Carole Hersee, now 57, and she was eight years old when the photo was taken in 1967. Her face beamed out on 70,000 hours of airplay between 1967 and 1998.
How old is the girl from the TV test card?
Now 57, Carole is an accomplished theatrical costume designer, and gave a radio interview in 2011 explaining how she came to be known as the infamous Test Card Girl.
What time did the test pattern come on?
Flamboyantly arrayed characters like Liberace were standard fare on ’50s TV. This is the “test pattern” which was used to calibrate the visual aspects of the black and white broadcast image. For some time it was a close up of a pattern as printed on art-grade white cardboard. It was used from 1947 to the early 1960s.
What happened to Test Card Girl?
Asked what she does now, she revealed: “Now I make period costume for the stage: for Phantom of the Opera, stuff for Les Miserables for America…” Carole hasn’t been formally photographed since 2007, when she dug out her old toy clown, Bubbles, and recreated the original snap.
When did UK go 24 hours?
On 9 August 1986, Yorkshire Television became the first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting.
When did the test card start?
1967
The most iconic image, introduced in 1967 with the advent of colour TV, was called Test Card F. Its designer was a BBC engineer called George Hersee and, for a dummy run, he had included a picture of his eight-year-old daughter, Carole, at the centre of it.
What was the BBC test card for?
The first “Tuning Signals” test card was broadcast by the BBC in 1934. It was a simple line and circle broadcast using Baird’s 30-line system, and was used to synchronise the mechanical scanning system.