Upstairs Downstairs (ITV, 1971)

Abstract

Two significant events occurred in British television in 1967: from January to July BBC2 serialised The Forsyte Saga, based on the novels of John Galsworthy, in 26 episodes. The serial realised a long-held ambition of producer Donald Wilson to bring Galsworthy’s late-Victorian/Edwardian saga to the screen and the dramatisation was the first big success for BBC2, attracting an average audience of 6 million (which tripled to 18 million when the serial was repeated on BBC1 in 1968). The second significant event also occurred on BBC2, in December 1967, when the channel started transmitting in colour. While the full switchover to colour did not occur until November 1969 when BBC1 and ITV started colour transmissions (and even then it was well into the 1970s before the new colour television sets were affordable for many people) the introduction of colour on BBC2 marked the beginning of the end for black and white television and had a significant impact on television aesthetics.