Restoring the Coronation.

History Tomorrow, the Coronation Of Queen Elizabeth II is being shown in its entirety by BBC Parliament, exactly 60 years after its original broadcast. The colourist and restorer on the piece is Jonathan Wood, who some of you will know for his work on the added-value material on Doctor Who dvds. Here he talks about the effort of getting these old rolls ready for repeat:

"In 1953 TV technology was in its infancy and video recording had not been invented, so the only way the BBC could retain a copy of what was transmitted on that day was by filming the output - basically pointing a camera at a 405-line television monitor!

"The BBC did this using 35mm black and white film. Recording the broadcast onto film and storing it for 60 years brings its own problems, like dirt and scratches.

"These film faults were not part of what the public actually saw on the day, therefore our challenge was to restore the pictures as closely as possible to how people would have experienced them at the time."

Needless to say my PVR is all ready and waiting. Wow.