Memories of teletext

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Does anyone remember using teletext regularly, in the 80s and 90s? In a way, it was a forerunner to having the internet at home, and being able to look things up quickly. I think I used it more than I actually watched TV (I was a teenager then). I used to love the jokes, 'Zine, and Backchat, where people (usually teenagers) could send in comments; and if you were lucky, yours would be screened. When you were able to send in comments by email, instead of by phone, post or fax, this was a novelty. "Ask permission to use the phone!" was the stern warning that came with this.

A hot topic on Backchat was the Teletubbies, then a brand new programme, which lots of teenagers liked to watch. I remember one comment on Backchat, which I think sums up the whole of modern social media: "I love reading Backchat, and watching you all making ridiculous comments about stupid things. Keep up the good work, everybody, it's so funny!"

4-T and Wiggly!

Remember watching the football scores. God waiting for your team’s division to come round and update was torture! You'd have to go through all the leagues, plus the Scottish leagues and non-league before it got back to the page with my team on. Agonising!

My grandma had some shares (mainly British Telecom I think) and used to check share prices on teletext.

I remember my other grandma’s tv had ‘fast text’ - coloured buttons so you could quickly access other relevant pages rather than typing in the numbers. Exciting times.

This.

This was how I learnt about the death of Princess Diana. My habit in the mornings would be to grab a bowl of cereal and sit down, put the tv on & put on teletext for the news headlines. That sunday morning was no different....but massive surprise at reading that headline & then switching over to see the live coverage.

I met my ex-wife via Twletext. There was a dating section on there. A precursor to OLD but obviously no photos, just 2 lines of blurb & a code number that you entered when sending a reply.

I seem to remember doing a pop quiz on Ceefax.

And reading this…

Yes, the holidays and the weather page, DM used it until she died in 2016, she didn't have internet.

We had 3 nights b&b in Blackpool from teletext holidays. I bet you guys are jealous with your measly trips to Kenya and Crete!

News, football results, holidays, cinema listings (took ages as it covered every cinema in the region but saved having to go out and buy the local newspaper), quizzes, I used to read it all obsessively.

Bamboozle was fantastic!

I wrote into both Backchat and 'Zine. I had quite a lot of comments published, or "screened", as they called it, which seems odd now, as "screened" now usually means blocked. There were conspiracy theories on 'Zine about how it was teachers spying on you.

I suppose one parallel with modern computing is that nowadays, kids can rack up massive bills by buying things in games. Back then, there were lots of reasons to call premium rate lines. They stole money off you in a different way.

I too liked Bamboozle, but it was easy to cheat if you watched the numbers changing, as the "bad luck, you've been bamboozled" always had the same page number. I quite liked watching things with subtitles on: in those days, they were typed by hand, not speech recognition.

Ah - 888 for subtitles. I miss those days. We weren’t allowed to watch Neighbours or Home and Away (might have corrupted our young minds) so my siblings and I always watched with the sound off and subtitles on so we could change channel quickly if a parent came along without them hearing us doing so. Getting subtitles on a smart TV is a total faff now.

It used to be fantastic!!!! Bamboozle was my favourite, used to get the cinema listings too. Still read the news on Teletext now lol.....when it works

How did it work though? Must have come through the aerial?

I wasted so much time on it. A warning of things to come with the internet 😞

Somewhere I have a photo of myself kneeling in front of the TV with my Teletext artwork on display; I'm sporting a bat-wing jumper and a mullet. They sent a print-out of it in the post afterwards.

Yes it was info transmitted along with the television programme signal.

Park Avenue was great! Some wild storylines.

I remember as well, the BBC sometimes used to show 'Pages from Ceefax' on its main channels as a 'filler' between programmes.

Does anyone remember Mailbox? Run by “Ed”? Two people got chatting on there, had a teletext “wedding” which was highly anticipated, then met and got married in real life. They are still together with kids as far as I know.

I used to contribute but can’t remember my name. I’ve been searching this archive to try to find my comments!

I remember my parents using it to look up the weather forecast for the day and the rest of the week.
Dad would look up the football results on there as well.

Banboozle!

The teletext was transmitted all the time in the "empty spaces" between television frames. When you chose a particular page, your TV had to wait for that particular one to be transmitted.