In the digital age, Test Card F and its variants are very infrequently broadcast, as downtime in schedules has largely become a thing of the past. The card was also seen on ITV in the 1970s, occasionally used in conjunction with Test Card G. It was frequently broadcast during daytime downtime on BBC Television until 29 April 1983 and was still seen before the start of programmes until BBC1 began to broadcast 24 hours a day in November 1997, and on BBC2 until its downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax in 1998, after which it was only seen during engineering work, and was last seen in this role in 1999. The card was developed by a BBC engineer, George Hersee (1924–2001), father of the girl in the central image. It was first broadcast on 1 July 1967 (the day after the first colour pictures appeared to the public on television) on BBC2. The central image on the card shows Carole Hersee playing noughts and crosses with a clown doll, Bubbles the Clown, surrounded by various greyscales and colour test signals used to assess the quality of the transmitted picture.
It was the first to be transmitted in colour in the UK and the first to feature a person, and has become an iconic British image regularly subject to parody.
Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programmes were being broadcast. Test Card F is a test card that was created by the BBC and used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Off-air screen capture of BBC Test Card F, as seen on BBC1 between 17 February 1991 and 4 October 1997.
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