Why does video play in black and white when it says on the box it's in colour?

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I bought a second hand video for my daughter which says it's in colour but it plays in black and white.
The TV doesnt have any buttons for adjusting colour and anyway all other videos play no problem.
Can anyone shed light on this?

It's a French video but surely that wouldn't make a difference?

Do you have two scart connections? Try changing them over and see if that works - I had to do this with a Playstation once.

If it's French then the chances are that it's a SECAM video which is different to the PAL system that our videos use.

SECAM and PAL both add colour to black and white TV pictures but do it in different ways, although the underlying method that they handle the B&W video is the same.

So put a French SECAM video into a UK PAL Video player and it'll be able to get the B&W signal working but won't be able to add colour to it.

So in short yes it probably is because it's a French video.

Thanks both.
I think there's only one scart plug, will look. But Badger's explanation doesn't bode well....