I have previously written that one of the reasons why we loved going to the Gerringong Town Hall to watch pictures was because the films were in colour.

Films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang had stunning images in Technicolor.

At home on the old TV, it was very different. We had to watch a screen with black and white images.

I used to watch football on a Sunday night. In my child’s mind, I thought South Sydney were two tones of gray.

In the Samurai TV program, Shintaro’s helpers, like Tombei the Mist and the Iga Ninja wore light-coloured costumes. I often wondered what colour they were. Like thousands of kids everywhere, we could not, try as we might, make ‘star knives’, stick in posts and jump backwards into trees.

And who could forget the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. It had a lot of psychedelic colour sequences. Most notable in the song, I am the Walrus. Unfortunately for them, the film was a flop as it was shown in black and white.

Mind you, we really did not care. I was an avid TV watcher. One of my other favourites was Combat, with Vic Morrow. I could never work out how the German soldiers could fire 1000 bullets and only scratch him on the arm whereas Morrow could kill 10 of them with one burst from his submachine gun.

I also fondly remember Phantom Agents (we only use guns as a last resort), Gigantor, Astro Boy, Dad’s Army, Steptoe and Son, and Man about the House.

Some other US shows were great such as Gomer Pyle, McHale’s Navy, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, The Man from Uncle and, of course, The Monkees. “Here we come, walking down the street, getting the funniest look from, everyone we meet …”

My sister, Merelyn, who is seven years older, remembers with affection such shows as Shirley Temple’s Storybook, Annie Oakley, Disneyland, Mr Ed, Mr Magoo, Rocky and Bulwinkle, The Lone Ranger, The Avengers and everybody's favourite, Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The list could go on. I am sure you can think of scores of others.

And who could forget that you could go to the shop to buy a packet of Scanlens Bubble Gum, throw away the gum, and collect the cards to keep or swap with your friends at school.

There were many adult programs that the oldies enjoyed that I did not, like Twilight Zone.

But the one I remember the most for not watching, if that makes sense, was “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. This funny music would come on and Hitchcock would say “good eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevening”.

At that moment I was ordered to bed and the rest of the family sat down to watch it. I managed to see some programs on YouTube years later.

In 1975, the TV landscape changed.

To be able to see your favourite show in bright living colour was brilliant. Suddenly any person producing TV programs had to think of the way it would look. I know a lot of teams in the rugby league changed their uniforms to make them brighter.

Pop stars had to spruce up their costumes to make them look big and spectacular to help them get the chance to perform on Countdown with Molly Meldrum.

It was not all beer and skittles to begin with. Buying a new colour TV was not exactly cheap. There were scam artists who said all you had to buy was a piece of coloured plastic and place it on the screen but, alas, this did not work.

Filming in colour for those who made TV programs, films and commercials was much more expensive.

Eventually, TV producers realised that if they did not change to colour then nobody would watch their programs.

Viewers also eventually had to make the switch. That did not, however, mean that all black and white TVs disappeared.

Second-hand ones could be quite cheap and poor uni students living in caravans could afford to have a small beat-up black and white TV which you could watch if you manipulated the rabbit ears just so by holding onto one with one hand and have the other out the window or doing some other contortion. It was better than nothing.

Nowadays there are techniques where black and white film can be changed into colour.

But sometimes I do miss the old days. Old black and white TV shows and movies looked quite quaint and I swear the horror films looked scarier.