Colour Strike
The Colour Strike was an industrial action by technicians at all ITV companies from 13 November1970 to 8 February1971 (although some shows made during this period in black and white were having their first transmission as late as December 1971), who due to a pay dispute with their management, refused to work with colour television equipment.
At that time ITV had recently switched to colour transmissions, requiring the individual companies to invest heavily in new equipment. Colour cameras consisted of four tubes to relay the picture: three were receptive to colour (red, green and blue - the chrominance signal) with the fourth providing a high-resolution monochrome image (the luminance signal). The final colour picture was created by combining the chrominance and luminance signals, but the technicians simply switched off the colour tubes whilst this dispute took place. [1]
This meant that even though the equipment was available, all shows had to be broadcast in monochrome, [2] [3] thus denying the ITV companies the ability to sell airtime at the higher value that colour transmissions dictated.
For example, the first Coronation Street to be broadcast in colour was on 24 November 1969, but due to the strike, many 1970/71 editions (such as the death of Valerie Barlow by electrocution) were filmed in black and white. The last monochrome edition being on the 8 February 1971. [4]
There was also a short dispute two years later in early 1973 affecting both BBC channels and ITV as well.
Shows affected by the ITV colour strike
- Budgie
- Please Sir (the last three episodes of series two)
- Upstairs, Downstairs
- Timeslip
- Doctor at Large
- On the Buses
- Bless This House (episodes 8 to 12 of series one)
- Crossroads
- Coronation Street
- Hine
- The Mind of Mr J.G. Reader (all of series two apart from 'Man With A Strange Tattoo')
- The Trouble with You, Lilian (all but episode one)
- Six Dates with Barker
- A Family at War (episodes 12 to 19 of series two)
- The Dickie Henderson Show
- Nearest and Dearest (episodes 2 to 8 of series five)
- Hadleigh (episodes 1, 2, 8, 9 and 13 of series two - the last five of that series to be made)
- Elephant's Eggs in a Rhubarb Tree (three out of six editions)
- Freewheelers (episodes 6 to 11 and 13 of series five)
- The Benny Hill Show