Test Card F - in Popular Culture - Television

Television

  • In the 1970s ITV satirical series, End of Part One, there is an audition for a new test card 'girl'. This features various adults (including a bearded man) sitting behind a giant test-card cutout and attempting the same pose as Test Card F.
  • A fictional version of Test Card F, of sorts, appears in the BBC television series Life on Mars. A girl resembling Carole Hersee as she appeared in the test card acts as a sort of spiritual guide in the series. The real thing flashes on and off during a BBC One ident in order to create the feeling of the 1970s.
  • The Weebl and Bob cartoon "merchandise" features a parody of Test Card F, in which Carole is replaced by Weebl and the clown is replaced by Bob wearing a clown's hat and makeup.
  • A version of Test Card F (with Carole replaced) was seen in 2006 on Channel M as part of the Frank Sidebottom show.
  • In a Headcases sketch, Katie Price is shown as Hersee, while a made-up Peter Andre is the doll Bubbles.
  • ITV Digital, the former UK pay-TV platform, featured Al (Johnny Vegas) and Monkey as the girl and clown on its spoof testcard, shown when some of the channels on the platform were off air.
  • An updated version of Test Card F has appeared on Sky HD, with television presenter Myleene Klass playing the role of Carole Hersee. Unlike the original static Test Card F, Klass steps out of the frame and gives viewers a ten-minute guide to high-definition television.
  • Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of BBC Three's cult comedy programme The Mighty Boosh posed for a parody of Test Card F for Guardian Unlimited in 2006.
  • Nick UK showed a parody of Test Card F during off-time circa 1997, using Test Card N. It features a big Nick splat logo in the center, and pictures of stars (like Tommy from Rugrats, or Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy) on other areas.
  • The celebrity quiz show "It's Only TV, But I Like It" used a version of the test card replacing the scene with the host Jonathan Ross and regular team captains Julian Clary and Phill Jupitus surrounding the chalkboard as a promotional image.
  • The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky episode of the show Zero Punctuation uses a similar image, with the girl replaced by Yahtzee and the clown replaced by an imp.
  • It was spoofed in an episode of Spitting Image which featured Bubbles complaining about the music being played, then going on strike, with Nicholas Witchell bought in as a replacement, much to Carole's dismay.
  • In the sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look, there is a series of sketches portraying the aftermath of "The Event" which feature a parody of Test Card F, featuring Bubbles with a sad face, Carole wearing a gas mask, and depressing phrases such as "Mummy won't wake up" written on the blackboard.
  • The ominous "Poetry Girl" appears in a frame with a pattern very similar to that of Test Card F in the 2010 Doctor Who episode, "The Beast Below".
  • The Fonejacker life insurance sketch features Test Card F on the screen of an ECG machine.
  • In the credits of Gravity Falls. Grunkle Stan parodys Test Card F replacing the image of Carole Hersee.

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