Originally shown on BBC2 in the summer of 1967 test card F was shown for an estimated 70,000 hours. It is widely believed that 48 year old Carole holds the record for the most TV appearances by a single person.

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Bubbles [1] is the name of the clown doll that appeared in the BBC's first test card to be transmitted in colour,[2] Test Card F, in 1967,[3] as well as the subsequent test cards J and W [4] which were made using the original master transparency, and seen right.[5] Along with his Test Card F co-star Carole Hersee, Bubbles has appeared for an estimated total of 70,000 hours [3] on television, equivalent to nearly eight whole years, which is more than any living person other than Carole.[6]

[edit] On Test Card F He is pictured with Carole, an eight-year-old[7] girl (and daughter of Test Card F engineer George Hersee), standing on a table with a wide, fixed grin, playing noughts and crosses.[3] He has been spoofed by other characters posing alongside actors against a Test Card F background, for example with ITV Digital's Monkey (alongside Johnny Vegas as Carole) on its test card,[8] and by Noel Fielding (alongside Julian Barratt as Carole) on The Mighty Boosh.[9]

Bubbles is often seen as an evil clown, inciting phobia in some young children who witnessed him,[3] and is described as "somewhat unsettling".[3] Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian notes of a spoof of the clown's style:

“ Any small child catching sight of Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh in his clown gear would vow never to go to the circus again.[9] ”

[edit] Colour Bubbles' original body colour was a blue of a similar shade to his hat,[10] but the BBC engineers decided that green was also needed within the scene [10] as the other two television primary colours, red and blue, were already shown. A green wrap was made to cover his body and this can be seen in Test Cards J and W, along with more of his body shown in the photograph [4] - revealing the fact that he is actually holding a piece of chalk, which was not previously visible.

However, the shade of green material chosen was too subtle for the engineers liking and so Bubbles' body colour in Test Card F was retouched (this can be seen from the edges of his image) to make it more saturated and also to give it a higher luminance value on screen.[10]

[edit] Recent years The Test Card Circle, an organisation for fans of test card music with over two hundred members,[11] has suggested that Test Card F (of which Bubbles is an integral part) is "a British icon to rival the double-decker London bus and red telephone box",[3]. However, since the late 1990s, Bubbles has only very rarely appeared on television as Test Card F has been discontinued, and Test Cards J and W are very seldom shown due to the advent of digital television and 24-hour programming.[2] It is not definitively known what happened to Bubbles, but a parody has suggested his fate.[12] For the fortieth anniversary of Test Card F, there has been renewed interest in Bubbles in the media: in a 2007 interview, Hersee mentioned that she would take Bubbles into school with her to prove to her headmaster that she really was the girl in the picture,[13] although in the updated versions of Test Card F released in 2007 featuring Myleene Klass and the 48-year-old Carole Hersee, Bubbles himself has been replaced by lookalikes.[14]

[edit] References ^ University of Southampton: George Hersee obituary ^ a b The Test Card FAQ ^ a b c d e f Test card special. BBC News. ^ a b BBC Test Cards ^ Widescreen Test Card Development - a new Test Card is born by Barney Wol ^ Richard Whiteley "is believed to have clocked-up more hours on television screens ..... than anyone else alive, apart from the girl on the test card." (From his obituary on the BBC website) ^ IMDB: Carole Hersee ^ Johnny Vegas: Veteran Newcomer. BBC News. ^ a b The mighty clowns. Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt's BBC test card. Dorian Lynskey, Saturday September 9, 2006 The Guardian. ^ a b c Murphy Radio: Rust 'n' Dust Test Card Gallery ^ The Test Card Circle: About ^ Tears of a Test Card Clown ^ Personal Column: Test-card special The Independent. ^ Daily Mail

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