TV Test Cards & Closedown Music

[TubThumper]

Before 24-hour broadcasting became the norm, there was something oddly comforting about the end of the TV day.

Late at night, after the final programme had aired, the continuity announcer would sign off, and we’d be left with a test card or a still image—often accompanied by gentle, Muzak-style instrumental music. For many of us, this was the signal that it was definitely time for bed…

Who else remembers the iconic Test Card F with the little girl and the clown? It became such a familiar sight that it almost felt like part of the family. There were others too—different designs depending on the channel—but they all had that same quiet, slightly eerie stillness.

And then there was the music…

That unmistakable Muzak-style background music—soft, looping instrumentals that felt like they belonged in a lift or a waiting room—somehow became the soundtrack to the end of the broadcast day. Sometimes it was calming, other times oddly eerie, especially if you were the only one still awake. Or, getting up really early and turning the TV on, awaiting the first kids TV show of the day!

On other occasions, you’d get the national anthem—probably before my time— or just a continuous electronic tone (followed by a few beeping tones) behind a static image. If you fell asleep with the TV on, you’d often wake up to that gentle-but-unsettling blend of music and tone.

It’s hard to imagine now, with endless channels and streaming on demand, that TV used to have a definite ending point each day. There was something quite special about that shared experience—everyone across the country reaching the same quiet moment at the same time.

What are your memories of test cards and closedown? Did you have a favourite piece of music, or a moment where it genuinely gave you the creeps?

[George 1978]

The Carole Hersee test card was certainly seen as recently as the early 2000s with the updated "BBC" and "2" logo on it; possibly during the early hours of Christmas morning one year when I switched over from the end of Midnight Mass on BBC 1 over to BBC 2 when they had finished for the day, I assume that they put on then deliberately "because" it was Christmas morning. I think that BBC 1 stopped showing it when BBC News 24 started up in 1997 although very occasionally it could be seen but not during the daytime, and BBC 2 went into the 2000s with theirs. If one did video record the programme called "Close" at the end of the evening, then that is what you would have recorded if not a blank screen or even static. It was mostly a tone in later years.

ITV and Channel 4 had a different test card which had the IBA initials on it, and it had a more colourful design, although it was seen more frequently on Channel 4 during the mid 1980s as they often didn't open up until 4.30 pm when Countdown came on, although according to enthusiast magazines and historical TV websites all that, it gave me the illusion that ITV companies also used test card F in the early 1970s as well. I know that when I once got up early one Sunday morning just before ITV went 24 hours, I saw the IBA test card just before TV-am were due to go on air. And also, did Anglia TV have their own test card for their region, or was that something that the late Victor Lewis-Smith made up on the TV Offal pilot? - I cannot imagine a test card being specially made and produced for any one TV company like that.

Speaking of test cards and TV Offal, VLS mentioned in "The Pilots That Crashed" part, The Development of the Test Card which was not a pilot itself, even though it had looked as if it could have been seen on BBC 2 or Channel 4 on a mid-1980s Saturday afternoon, but it was a programme which I assume was not for official broadcast. George Hersee, Carol's father was interviewed in the programme which was made in a very 1970s brown Parkinson-alike TV studio. Here it is... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2gTRi0LA5Q

Also, I suppose this comment should have gone into the adverts section, but it's a good place to mention the Carlsberg advert from 1986 with the test card featured on it... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVY-c7jTlUs - I assume that it was still satirical due to Channel 4 and perhaps BBC 2 still closing down in the morning and afternoon back then.

[TubThumper]

The Carole Hersee test card was certainly seen as recently as the early 2000s with the updated "BBC" and "2" logo on it; possibly during the early hours of Christmas morning one year when I switched over from the end of Midnight Mass on BBC 1 over to BBC 2 when they had finished for the day, I assume that they put on then deliberately "because" it was Christmas morning. I think that BBC 1 stopped showing it when BBC News 24 started up in 1997 although very occasionally it could be seen but not during the daytime, and BBC 2 went into the 2000s with theirs. If one did video record the programme called "Close" at the end of the evening, then that is what you would have recorded if not a blank screen or even static. It was mostly a tone in later years.

ITV and Channel 4 had a different test card which had the IBA initials on it, and it had a more colourful design, although it was seen more frequently on Channel 4 during the mid 1980s as they often didn't open up until 4.30 pm when Countdown came on, although according to enthusiast magazines and historical TV websites all that, it gave me the illusion that ITV companies also used test card F in the early 1970s as well. I know that when I once got up early one Sunday morning just before ITV went 24 hours, I saw the IBA test card just before TV-am were due to go on air. And also, did Anglia TV have their own test card for their region, or was that something that the late Victor Lewis-Smith made up on the TV Offal pilot? - I cannot imagine a test card being specially made and produced for any one TV company like that.

Speaking of test cards and TV Offal, VLS mentioned in "The Pilots That Crashed" part, The Development of the Test Card which was not a pilot itself, even though it had looked as if it could have been seen on BBC 2 or Channel 4 on a mid-1980s Saturday afternoon, but it was a programme which I assume was not for official broadcast. George Hersee, Carol's father was interviewed in the programme which was made in a very 1970s brown Parkinson-alike TV studio. Here it is... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2gTRi0LA5Q

Also, I suppose this comment should have gone into the adverts section, but it's a good place to mention the Carlsberg advert from 1986 with the test card featured on it... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVY-c7jTlUs - I assume that it was still satirical due to Channel 4 and perhaps BBC 2 still closing down in the morning and afternoon back then.

That’s a brilliant memory—especially catching the Carole Hersee test card unexpectedly like that. There was always something a bit magical about stumbling across it when you weren’t expecting to, particularly at odd times like Christmas morning.

You’re right—BBC Two definitely seemed to hang onto it longer than BBC One. Once BBC News 24 came along, that really marked the beginning of the end for proper closedown on BBC One.

I like your point about recording Close as well—that’s such a specific memory. Either you’d get the full closedown sequence… or just end up with that long tone or a blank screen if you mistimed it!

And yes—that IBA test card felt like a completely different world compared to Test Card F. Slightly more “technical” looking, whereas the BBC one had that oddly personal feel to it.

Channel 4 especially seemed to lean into it in the 80s with those later start times—it almost became part of the channel’s identity in a strange way.

As for regional test cards like Anglia—good question. I’ve always had the impression most regions stuck with standard designs rather than commissioning their own, so that might have been Victor Lewis-Smith having a bit of fun with it in TV Offal.

That Carlsberg advert is a great shout too—I remember that! It really shows how embedded test cards were in everyday life back then that they could be parodied like that.

It’s funny looking back now—what felt like “dead air” at the time has become one of the most memorable parts of old television.

[George 1978]

It's mostly research rather than memory, but I do personally remember these things back in the day as well. I don't know whether this is nostalgia or what, but I wouldn't mind a few hours of the test card on ITV in the midnight to 6.00 am slot just like the 1970s and 1980s rather than have all this shopping channel rubbish (ironically selling things like mattresses and the like where one would more likely to be lying on one rather than buying on at 3.00 am). and those horrible fraud-making impossible-to-answer-quiz-by-telephone shows. ITV stations used an IBA test card - proof that the IBA was better than Ofcom any day of the week.