Test Card F

Test Card F is a test card that was created by the BBC and used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programmes were being broadcast. It was the first to be transmitted in colour in the UK and the first to feature a person, and has become an iconic British image regularly subject to parody.

The central image on the card shows Carole Hersee playing noughts and crosses with a clown doll, Bubbles the Clown, surrounded by various greyscales and colour test signals used to assess the quality of the transmitted picture. It was first broadcast on 2 July 1967 (the day after the first colour pictures appeared to the public on television) on BBC2.

The card was developed by BBC engineer George Hersee (1924–2001), the father of the girl in the central image. It was frequently broadcast during daytime downtime on BBC Television until 29 April 1983, when it was replaced with broadcasts of Ceefax pages. It continued to be used for a few minutes each day before the start of programmes, or when the Ceefax generator was not working. It was further phased out from BBC1 in November 1997 when the station began to air 24 hours a day, followed by BBC2 on January 1999 when its overnight downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax. After then it was only seen during engineering work, and was last seen in this role in 2011. The card was also seen on ITV in the 1970s, occasionally used in conjunction with Test Card G.

In the digital age, Test Card F and its variants are very infrequently broadcast, as downtime hours in schedules have largely been discontinued. Several variations of TCF have been screened, among them Test Card J (digitally enhanced), Test Card W (widescreen) and its high definition variant, which is sometimes erroneously referred to as Test Card X.

Up until the UK's digital switchover in 2010–2012, the test card made an appearance during the annual RBS (rebroadcast standby)^[1] Test Transmissions and, until 2013, during the BBC HD preview loop, which used Test Card W.