1948 ??? That first TV .................................

Not quite sure what year it would have been. It's all a brief whirl of images now. As with cars, my grandfather managed to be among "the earlier to have things".

That the TV was a black and white there's no doubt. After all, television for the masses was, to all intents and puposes, a post-war arrival. These was early days. I'm sure the screen was laughably small by today's standards and the picture probably awful. The only transmitter then was at Alexandra Palace to the north of London, so at 30+ miles we must have been at the limit of the range; line of sight and all that.

In those days the BBC or British Broadcasting Corporation was the only broadcaster. ITV, Independant Television followed later with its transmitter at Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham. At eight years old I knew and cared little about all this.

I can only remember a couple of programmes: Test Match cricket which my grandfather followed avidly and a children's programme called "Muffin the Mule". Much of the time the transmission ended abruptly and the screen would display either goldfish or a windmill and the caption: "Normal Service Will be Resumed as Soon as Possible". But in those days, even the goldfish or a windmill were a source of fascination.

Programmes were rather restricted. Mostly evenings I think. At 'non-programme' time there was a patterned 'test card' displayed on the screen. I'm told folks would even stand and gaze at that in radio shop windows.

I remember that the start of transmission was marked with a picture of Alexandra Palace's huge antenna with "waves" emmanating from it.

We've come along way since then - but was it the right way? Given show content and quality today, I'm far from sure.