[720p/50p reupload] BBC1 | final 405 line closedown | 2nd January 1985

© BBC TELEVISION 1985

Goodbye to 405-line television! And they dug out a 1938 Baird T-18 for the occasion!

Well, this one was a nice surprise to find on a tape! I know this one is already on YouTube, but my upload is the most complete, extending to the test tone at the end, before the recording cuts off. Normally I throw tapes away once I've digitised them. But I'm keeping this one, though! :)

This wasn’t quite the end of 405, most BBC transmitters were actually switched off at various points throughout the next day.

Also, all BBC main 405 transmitters went off on the same day (January 3rd), whereas some ITV/IBA ones went off during January 2nd (like Burnhope) and some on the 3rd (like Emley Moor). This seems to arise from some confusion over whether the last date was the switch off day. The last full day was meant to be the 2nd and switch-off during the 3rd, except in Scotland where things were apparently delayed by a day due to an extra public holiday up there.

Crystal Palace actually went off during Breakfast Time on the 3rd with Croydon following at the TV-am/Thames handover at 9:25am (as did Chillerton Down in the TVS region). Holme Moss went off during some tennis coverage later that afternoon, with Emley Moor approx 35 minutes before it. Pontop Pike went off during “Look North” on the 3rd. I’m looking up when others went off throughout the day. The last 405 line transmitter to go off was Llandrindod Wells' BBC1 transmitter, which IIRC didn’t go off until January 6th due to its remote location and not being manned. The BBC1 405 transmitter at LW had its own standards converter, receiving UHF off-air broadcasts from the Carmel transmitter and having these received broadcasts converted down to 405. LW ITV (HTV Wales region) 405 was fed as an off-air relay from St. Hilary (with conversion done there) so consequently its service was cut off (though it’s transmitter would have been switched off later) when St. Hilary shut down. LW BBC1 was fed from Wenvoe 405 in a similar fashion until Carmel UHF opened in 1973 and the BBC then took the decision to install a Pye CO6/509 digital-domain standards converter at LW so the 625-only Carmel transmissions could feed LW instead. (That is to say, the 509 converter converted 625 from analogue to digital, did the line standard conversion from 625 to 405 in the digital domain, then converted the 405 picture from digital back to analogue).

End of On the Waterfront
BBC1 slide: Indiscreet
BBC1 slide: Thursday evening lineup
BBC1 mirror globe: Weather forecast with Ian McCaskill
Live footage of a restored 1938 Baird T-18 405-line TV set with 405-line closing announcement
BBC1 clock (12:08am): closing announcement
BBC1 mirror globe and national anthem
black and silence
black and tone