A forklift driver from Chester didn’t expect the 70-year-old black and white TV set he bought on eBay to actually switch on.
But bachelor Malcolm Pallet, 53, was stunned to discover that when he plugged in the antique box not only did the valves start glowing but a grainy episode of a 1950s children’s programme appeared on screen.
“It were nuts,” Malcolm told us. “I twiddled the tuning knob but there were nowt else on’t tele, not even documentaries like Love island or Naked Attaction, nowt!”
The only other programmes Malcolm was able to find on the TV were ‘I love Lucy’, ‘Wagon Train’ and ‘Muffin the Mule’.
“I don’t get it,” said Malcolm. “It must be magic or summat’s wrong wi’it.”
However, Spoofflé’s Technology correspondent Dr Crispin Grundwald was extremely excited at the report and raced up the M6 to buy the TV from Malcolm before news got out.
“This is quite extraordinary and technically very, very exciting” Crispin said. “I suspect that what we are witnessing is the first European example of Non-Transient Residual Programme Permanence, or NTRPP, in which electrons hitting the phosphor coating of the Cathode Ray Tube during the original programme reception were trapped, with their energy, sequence and distribution pattern perfectly preserved.”
“When the set was switched on after all these years, these electron patterns were reactivated and the programme re-appeared, but unfortunately without sound.”
Dr Grunwald paid Malcolm £9 for the TV. (Expense claim by Monday please Doc, Ed)