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-   -   Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc. (https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=96824)

Nicklyons2 11th Mar 2015 11:03 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by wireful3 (Post 744444)
Anachronistic idiomatic phrases seem far more obvious than wrong props.

Try watching WPC56 then; "have a nice day" - in 1956 Britain?
"a tea for me and a Cappuccino for her" was there anywhere outside London where one could obtain such a drink before 1980s?
Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'
addressing members of CID as 'detective' - that wasn't even used in the US before Hill St Blues!

Props wise they have collared a good compliment of DAC90s as one might expect and the Police Station has a Sky Queen. Television hasn't, it would appear, yet appeared in the fictional Birmingham suburb.

ColinTheAmpMan1 14th Mar 2015 2:39 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicklyons2 (Post 749167)
Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'
.....fictional Birmingham suburb.

I don't know this series, but having been born in Brum and lived there until the age of 19, may I suggest that "constable" spoken in a real Brummie accent can sound decidedly rude. Maybe that's why they thought that "officer" was less likely to be offensive....Just a thought.
Colin.

G6Tanuki 14th Mar 2015 6:12 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicklyons2 (Post 749167)
Referring to policemen as '"officer" in my childhood they were 'constables'.

Indeed: in my mindspace "officers" are the upper-ranks [think military-equivalents of Commissioned grades - Lieutentants-and-above].

Generic Police-constables, PCSOs and sergeants are 'other ranks' and I don't record them as 'officer' in any offical documentation.

Though it gets a bit confusing these days when an initial inductee to GCHQ [or the various MI5/6/7-type services] is today a "Surveillance Officer" even when they're straight out of college. In times-past they were "Research Assistants" for their first decade or so.

Nicklyons2 19th Mar 2015 9:12 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Firstly, as an update, series 3 of WPC56 has been screened in the past week with many new cast and the word 'constable' has appeared; maybe some letters to the Radio Times? however the dreaded 'detective' was still in use for CID members.

Secondly, a 'revolutionary' type of film was on evidence in this last series; raw film stock resistant to fogging!. The 'baddies', concentration camp doctor + evil nurse, had documented their beastliness on 8mm and had stashed it in a locked drawer. The police opened the drawer to reveal a 3" metal spool of 8mm film - one of the pressed metal Kodak type I'm sure many of you will remember. "quick, get it to the lab" the detective entoned. Now if it hadn't already been processed having it uncased on that spool I would suggest would have long since fogged it. Alternatively, given that type of spool was the type Kodak sent processed film back on, I wondered what 'the lab' were going to do with it!

Audio documentation of 'experiments' was on 1/4" Emitape 4 spoke spools with ribbed centres, now here I can't remember; I suspect they're 1960s but I can't think what Emitape spools looked like earlier - any ideas?

McMurdo 25th May 2015 9:30 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I'm just watching the documentary 'Churchill, when Britain said no' on BBC2. He's just broadcast the fall of France and it was pictured emanating from a Bush VHF90 :-/

'LIVEWIRE?' 13th Jun 2015 9:14 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
In 'Cospiracy-The Death of Hitler', last nigt on Channel 5, I'm sure the broadcast about Hitler's suicide, made in Berlin on 1st. May 1945, was emanating from a mid 1950s West German Table radio, maybe one of the big Grundig's or similar!

Herald1360 16th Nov 2015 11:53 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I'm not convinced that the payphone Lovell was portrayed using in tonight's programme on BBC4 about Jodrell Bank was correct. It didn't look like a button A button B installation to me.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have got squealy noises by twiddling knobs on a 'scope either.

cheerfulcharlie 17th Nov 2015 12:54 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by AC/HL (Post 650784)
Remember the yellow nurses uniforms on Emergency Ward 10. White caused the cameras to flare.

Apparently when Gerry Anderson was filming Stingray in colour, the original crew uniforms were a certain shade of red which came out as total black on B/W TVs and disturbed the viewing experience...so these were changed.

Niechcial,Steve 20th Nov 2015 2:46 pm

Thorn 1400 dual standard colour!
 
I went yesterday to see the brilliant film 'The Lady in the Van'. It starts about the year 1970 and one of the scenes is the display window of a 1970s TV shop with tellies turned on in the way that used to be then. As far as I could see from one view of the scene they had the correct models for the year- a mixture of colour and monochrome. However the big boob was that their little 1400 transportable was showing a colour picture! Has anyone else picked up radio/tv continuity errors like this from film and Tv?

Restoration73 20th Nov 2015 3:23 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
In the Jodrell bank one, he is seen setting up initially in a field with a Marconi signal
generator and a "Radar" (Waveforms Limited) crt tester, both of which were not
available in 1949. There are historians, and there are props buyers.
It was probably ok to see the Taylor multimeters used as a videophone with the meter movement removed, as Thunderbirds was meant to be fiction.

Guest 12th Dec 2015 6:48 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Watching 'Fools on the Hill' an Ekco A22 in the background, odd for 1936!

TrevorG3VLF 12th Dec 2015 7:31 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I'm afraid I was responsible for errors in 'Wartime farming'.
I was asked to supply an electric fence unit on Thursday, collected on Friday, installed on Saturday and filmed on Monday. Unfortunately the one they chose had a patent dated after the war.
They were not so keen on returning them and I had to pester and pester to get some action.
There were several things not right in the program, for example they could not start the Ford tractor so chose a post war Marshal with a cartridge start. It made farming appear very easy.

Nicklyons2 14th Dec 2015 3:31 pm

Re: Thorn 1400 dual standard colour!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Niechcial,Steve (Post 800772)
However the big boob was that their little 1400 transportable was showing a colour picture!

Not as big AN error as a Bush TV109 showing a colour picture, (a colour news report from ABC TV! in the film "Quatermass and the Pit"); at least the Thorn 1400 could run on 625.

McMurdo 22nd Dec 2015 2:12 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I've just seen 'Cue The Queen' on BBC1; A great docu about the history of the monarch's christmas speech. Lots of clips of old radios, equipment and TVs. (The wireless museum is in the credits). But early on it shows the first christmas broadcast by King George the 5th made in 1932 being listened-to by a group of his commonwealth subjects on an Ever Ready Saucepan Special :-)

dave walsh 22nd Dec 2015 4:37 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Yes I flagged that on the Fernish BRC 2000 thread re the set he's getting ready for this years QS. A good watch whether you are a royalist/traditionalist or not, with interesting inserts as you say [and I've not seen the first half yet] BBC1.

It's actually very much done in the style of the very many BBC4 programs with broadcasting/historical references that they produce at a bargain price. The last one was probably Ballrooms and Ballerinas-Dance At The BBC. BBC4 Sun 13/12/15.

Dave W

BottleMan 11th Jan 2016 10:09 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Endeavour 10th Jan 2016

For the life of me I can't work out how to use an AVO transistor analyser to record telephone messages. Any ideas, people????

Humber888 11th Jan 2016 11:02 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Haven't watched this yet. About how far into the episode should I look? Otherwise, if you could modulate a small lamp with the message, you could then use an OCP71 to detect the light variations! I'm sure there is a project in there somewhere.

barretter 12th Jan 2016 1:41 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
It's about 40 minutes in. There's also a Tandberg series 84 reel-to-reel on the table to which the transistor analyzer is supposed to act as a preamplifier, presumably, as the technician has headphones plugged into it!

Beobloke 12th Jan 2016 2:02 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I was most upset to see the cardboard box from a Dual CS505-1 turntable being used to hold files in the 2011 re-make of 'Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy' that I watched last weekend.

Nothing to do with the turntable, but everything to do with the fact that the film is set in the early 1970s and the CS505-1 wasn't released until 1981...

Studio263 12th Jan 2016 2:03 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by BottleMan (Post 812959)
Endeavour 10th Jan 2016

Better to watch Deutschland83 on the other side, very well done in all respects. Bonus points for the Beovision 8802 TV and Beocord 8800V V2000 VCR on the correct factory stand in a big German house, also one of those Grundig TV sets where the remote control fits into the front in the opening scene. The remote control was on the desk, perfect. Great story too.

McMurdo 14th Jan 2016 8:08 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Over Christmas I recorded the 1970's feature film 'Dads Army'. It starts in the early days of the war and Mr Mainwaring scurries to Elliot's Radio Store to hear Anthony Eden's call to arms speech. In the shop window are an Ekco A22 (circa 1946) and a Goblin Timespot (1947) and although the speech is heard on a pre-war Philips 930A, (circa 1932), for a radio shop it would've been a dated model by then unless we consider it to be a trade-in! Behind the lovely Philips is then revealed a Regentone A121 (circa 1950) on the same counter.

Not radio related but as the party leave the radio shop, you can see the film crew in the shop windows; they're tracking the camera in white t-shirts.

ColinTheAmpMan1 18th Jan 2016 3:07 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Possibly not an anachronism, but almost certainly inappropriate....
Did anyone watch the recent "Midsomer Murders" episode where lots of people are UFO-watching? One chap and his son have their caravan parked in a wood and have numerous bits and bobs of paraphernalia set up to detect "alien craft". Some of the items are radar-related, supposedly. The fact that the "ping" on a radar screen moves as it fades is a bit odd, but a home-made radar operating from a caravan? Is this feasible ????
When the outside of the caravan is seen, there is a "boat anchor" of some description just to the left of the door of the caravan. Anyone any ideas as to what it is?
Colin.

russell_w_b 29th Feb 2016 9:02 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
On 'Call The Midwife' last night, there was a power cut in the maternity unit. The Doctor's son was instructed to crank what looked remarkably like a medical 'shocking' coil; a wooden-cased generator, to which was connected a string of old-fashioned carbon filament lamps, which proceeded to glow to full brilliancy.

If that's the sort of energy a 'shocking coil' gave out, I think I'd've stuck with leeches!

Martin G7MRV 29th Feb 2016 10:13 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
He also stopped cranking it when they were bright and moved away - but they stayed lit! :-D

regentone001 29th Feb 2016 11:40 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
There was also a UHF aerial on the chimney stack which came crashing down during the storm

dave walsh 29th Feb 2016 11:43 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
There was a [Pye?] Radio in ITV's excellent "Churchill's Secret" last night-proper acting, unlike the East End self parody! I think the set would be in period [circa 46 maybe?] but it was looking very old already;). Hard to get a relatively new looking one though I suppose.
Dave W

turretslug 29th Feb 2016 12:20 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I saw that too, and wondered (but not for too long). Props, by definition, are far more likely to be cosmetically good than actually functional. Folk who dress sets are caught between a rock and a hard place sometimes. I think it's possible to construct an argument for a late 'thirties set to have appeared here- straitened times, "make do and mend", a wave of surplus valves and other components on the market plus demobbed servicemen who had technical training all doing their bit to keep things going. After all, radios would have been a far more significant expense then. That's the cultural context- but if a late 'thirties set had featured, there would have been people picking up on that as misplaced and inappropriate.

Peter.N. 1st Mar 2016 1:19 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I think the aerial on 'Call the midwife' was a band three which I thought was a bit late for the setting but the TV was a multi channel set and there was an A40 Somerset parked outside which came out in 1954 so could be right.

I also noticed the about 3 watt generator running several hundred watts of lights - clever that.

Peter

Phil G4SPZ 1st Mar 2016 10:12 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
An episode of 'Downton Abbey' featured a wireless set being installed in 1924 to enable the household to listen to the King's first broadcast. The anachronism I spotted when the programme was aired was that the wireless set took several seconds to warm up, and the audio was preceded by mains hum, an unlikely scenario for a battery set of that era.

My wife, a keen Downton enthusiast and owner of the official companion book entitled "Downton Abbey - A Celebration", pointed out the excellent still photo on page 20-21 taken from the scene set in 1924. The photo reveals that the wireless set is a beautifully restored 1922 Gecophone BC2580. However, it's playing through a horn loudspeaker which looks uncannily like a Sterling Model 33 (RR 3rd Ed, Fig 881, p. 211) which dates from 1927!

I realise that this is nit-picking in the extreme, and I doubt that any viewer noticed. I assume that the radio and speaker were loaned by the BVWTVM. All involved are to be congratulated on the extent to which period accuracy was achieved.

Peter.N. 2nd Mar 2016 1:24 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
At least the 'warm up' was fairly authentic, most valve radios in films seem to come on immediately when they switch it on backwards with the tuning knob.

Peter

TonyDuell 2nd Mar 2016 5:28 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
But wouldn't a battery set use directly heated valves and warm up very quickly?

Phil G4SPZ 2nd Mar 2016 6:51 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Well yes, indeed they would, that's why I mentioned it! I've restored several pre- and post-war battery sets and they usually come on within half a second. However the true performance would be nowhere so dramatic as a slow warm-up with some hum... is this contraption really going to work...? Ah yes, the sense of relief as the voice starts quietly and builds to full volume.

short wave 17th Mar 2016 5:20 pm

Out of place
 
I don’t know if a similar thread has been started (mods please move this if it has) but has anyone noticed in films , TV, Adverts etc things “Out of place”

BBC Arts have released an interesting take on New Order`s “Blue Monday” while watching it I spotted what looks like an Advance signal generator (audio? /RF? ) at the end of the piano (at 0-46 and 1-12) hardly 1930s! It was later confirmed as “Advance E2” (1-34) 100Kc/s – 100Mc/s so
hardly audioable! ( I used c/s to keep the period date – non of this “ modern” Hertz stuff )

Hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.
S-W

Link to video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLbaOLWjpc

ms660 17th Mar 2016 5:34 pm

Re: Out of place
 
Maybe the E2 was being used for heterodyning, did the E2 have a straight audio output (modulation) Can't quite remember?

Lawrence.

short wave 19th Mar 2016 1:43 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Hi Pwdrive. Yes it did have an A.F. output, I forgot about that (dont use it on mine) On the video it appears unconnected.

ColinTheAmpMan1 12th Apr 2016 6:53 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I was watching a recording of the latest episode of "Indian Summers" the other day. For those of you who aren't aware, this series is set in Shimla, which was the Indian summer capital during the British Raj. The chap who is hoping to take over as the next Viceroy, a fellow called Whelan (so not Louis Mountbatten, who was the last Viceroy) was making a 'phone call. The odd thing to me was that the cord to the receiver was curly! I would have thought that it should have been plaited, or were the Indians a few decades ahead of Blighty?
Colin.

G3VKM_Roger 12th Apr 2016 11:05 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
1 Attachment(s)
In a scene from the series "Fireball XL5" there are several shots of a set of American WW2 transmitter tuning units mounted on the space station wall, presumably to represent some 22nd Century high-tech gizmo!

Roger

Phil G4SPZ 12th Apr 2016 11:41 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Gosh, that takes me back! I'm old enough to have watched that series when it was first broadcast.

The Andersons used all sorts of tech junk in their sets, but to very good effect. In the later Thunderbirds series, for example, it's possible to spot DIN plugs used as desk microphones, multimeters posing as monitor screens, and even a Taylor valve tester. Clearly these bits of classic test gear were considered suitably cheap and plentiful to be butchered and given a new role. I wonder how many items came from the ITV studio engineering workshops?

Nicklyons2 13th Apr 2016 10:26 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by G3VKM_Roger (Post 838876)
In a scene from the series "Fireball XL5" there are several shots of a set of American WW2 transmitter tuning units mounted on the space station wall, presumably to represent some 22nd Century high-tech gizmo!

It works for me!

Also wasn't Prof Matthew Matic's 'space scope' a 35mm slide viewer?

G3VKM_Roger 13th Apr 2016 2:17 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ (Post 838886)
Gosh, that takes me back! I'm old enough to have watched that series when it was first broadcast.

Most of the episodes are on YouTube, Phil!

73,

Roger

m0cemdave 14th Apr 2016 10:15 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Ah, a BC610 for space communications...

MurphyNut 4th Jun 2016 6:22 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Being into old things we love period dramas especially ones set in 1920's-1970's and in general they are very good, they get the cars almost spot on for a particular period. But as for Radios, they are constantly out and often way out!
I forget the Drama but it was set in 1939 at the outbreak of war and sitting on the mantelpiece was a 1950's Ultra Coronation Twin!
I bet I'm not the only that notices this kind of thing!

hannahs radios 4th Jun 2016 6:53 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
In relation to the Dad's Army film, I mean the original one not the new one. Captain. Mainwaring passes the butcher's shop and it's lit with several 1970's vintage twin flourescent lights.

Phil G4SPZ 7th Jun 2016 11:27 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
My wife drew my attention to this relevant report in the Daily Mail.

gary_crutchley 12th Jun 2016 12:11 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
This is slightly off topic as it's not TV/Film, but I am a member of the National Trust and have visited many properties. I was at Upton House in Oxfordshire a few weeks ago, currently it is dressed to show how it was in the Second World War. There are a number of radios on display, the first room I walked in to had a DAC90A and a later model at that!

gary_crutchley 12th Jun 2016 12:22 am

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ (Post 854820)
My wife drew my attention to this relevant report in the Daily Mail.

Brilliant!

camtechman 25th Dec 2016 11:25 pm

Call The Midwife BBC1 8.00pm. Satellite Dish ?
 
1 Attachment(s)
Between 21:05 & 21:10 on tonight's (BBC1) Christmas Special of "Call The Midwife" (Set In 1962) I'm sure I saw a satellite dish on the chimney stack of a farmhouse !!

I was watching it on Channel 101 (BBC 1) in HD and it seemed clear enough to me. Unfortunately my screen capture (as a Jpeg) doesn't show it that well.

Did anyone else spot it or was technology that advanced in 1962 ??

paulsherwin 25th Dec 2016 11:43 pm

Re: Call The Midwife BBC1 8.00pm. Satellite Dish ?
 
I didn't see this, but it's not unusual for bloopers like this to get through. In the old days production companies would spend a lot of money removing anachronisms from locations. Nowadays they remove them digitally in post production, but sometimes things are missed, particularly if the budget is a bit tight. Downton Abbey has received criticism for missing things like this.

It even happens with period feature films, though the bigger budgets mean that the errors are less frequent and less obvious.

Herald1360 25th Dec 2016 11:45 pm

Re: Call The Midwife BBC1 8.00pm. Satellite Dish ?
 
It's an odd place for a dish, up above a chimney stack- maybe that's why it was missed. Given where it's pointing, the right hand gable wall would be a more usual location.

richrussell 26th Dec 2016 12:28 pm

Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.
 
I've just looked at the episode again on iPlayer, and in the bit when the farmhouse is first shown it looks far more like a metal cowling on the chimney.

I guess at around latitude 33S any dish would need to be reasonably tilted for geostationary satellites, which might limit mounting locations.


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