The Null Device

George Hersee, a former engineer at the BBC, passed away last week. You probably haven't heard of him, but he was responsible for Test Card F, the (in)famous TV test pattern with the little girl playing noughts and crosses with a sinister-looking toy clown. The model on the card was his daughter Carole, whose photo he used for testing the calibration of skin tones. The BBC decided to keep it, adult fashions tending to date too rapidly (especially in the Swingin' Sixties). Carole, now grown up with two kids, soon grew sick of her 15 minutes (or, more precisely, 70,000 hours) of fame, and of people constantly asking her about the test card.

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