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Old As Shit? You'll Probably Be Interested In What 'Test Card Girl' Looks Like Now

Old As Shit? You'll Probably Be Interested In What 'Test Card Girl' Looks Like Now

Carole Hersee, now 57, was the little girl in question.

James Dawson

James Dawson

I'm not familiar with 'test card girl' because I'm not old as shit, but maybe you are. In which case, you'll probably find this interesting.

Back in the day she was the little girl who appeared on (non-flat) TV screens when there was no programme on-air.

Carole Hersee, now 57, was the little girl in question. She was eight-years old when she had the photo taken in 1967 and racked up 70,000 hours of airplay between the years of 1967 and 1998.

The test card was used to test colour signals and grey-scales - again I have no idea what these are - but apparently if the border lines ever blurred it meant that the focus on your set needed adjusting.

Carole has now given an interview about what it was like to be recognised by so many. She recalled: "My father was helping to design the colour test card and took some photographs at home of my sister and I to give them some ideas of how they could use it.

"And the committee decided in the end that they would use a child in order to get facial colours for the television. And they decided to use me!"

Anyway here she is now...

Talking about the day the photo was taken, she added: "I think I got irritable, apparently. Because every time they wanted to take another photograph, I was eating a biscuit or something!"

Carole was paid £100 for her picture and she still owns the clown she was pictured with. She now works in costume design.

Wow, you learn something new every day!

Words by James Dawson

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: BBC