Editing Test Card F (section)

{{short description|Test card used by BBC television for decades}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2022}}
[[File:Testcard F.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Off-air screen capture of BBC Test Card F, as seen on BBC1 between 17 February 1991 and 4 October 1997.]]

'''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 [[grayscale|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 [[BBC Two|BBC2]].

The card was developed by BBC [[Broadcast engineering|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 seen for around 7.5 minutes each day before the start of Ceefax broadcasts but it would also be shown on days when the Ceefax generator was not working. It was further phased out from [[BBC One|BBC1]] in November 1997 when the station began to air 24 hours a day, followed by BBC2 in January 1999 when its overnight downtime was replaced entirely by ''[[Ceefax|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 (TV network)|ITV]] in the 1970s, occasionally used in conjunction with [[Philips PM5544|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 television|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)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix6uqyLvpds |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/ix6uqyLvpds| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=BBC 1 RBS Tests 2008|last=Mad Radio DXer|date=9 January 2008|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Test Transmissions and, until 2013, during the [[BBC HD]] preview loop, which used Test Card W.