Test card

A test card was an image used for testing a television's picture. In 1963, the test card used by the BBC had a circle in the centre. In 1969, the circle was replaced with a picture of a little girl and a clown playing noughts and crosses.

On 23 November 1963, Bob Dovie's television displayed the original test card. The Fifth Doctor tried to tell Nyssa about them, but she had no idea what he was talking about. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)

Also that year, Ace turned on the television in Mrs Smith's boarding house, which displayed the test card. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Third Doctor arranged to have the broadcast of the final of Make a Star replaced with the test card, thus defeating 's plan. (PROSE: Hidden Talent)

The Director-General of the BBC watched the Channel 4 test card while the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa searched for the ratings processor. (PROSE: Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life)

When Tom tried to use Iris Wildthyme's time-space kinetograph to watch James Joyce give his manuscript for The Muddest Thick that was Ever Heard Dump to Wyndham Lewis in 1926 Brussels, he only got the old test card picture but with the girl's face obscured by interference. (PROSE: Beguine)

In 2013, Reece Stanford asked the Tenth Doctor what he watched on television, surprised that he had not heard of Doomcastle. The Doctor simply responded that he had not watched television "in ages", describing the last thing he saw as "that girl playing noughts-and-crosses, you know, with the clown". (PROSE: Autonomy)

Behind the scenes
The image of a girl and a toy clown playing noughts and crosses was the real world image used on BBC produced test cards, such as. The girl is, and her father was the BBC engineer who developed the test card. A version of this test card appears in the Cyberman Ident Interruption in 2017, in which a CyberMondan 'interrupts' BBC One's continuity announcement and 'upgrades' announcer Duncan Newmarch. As this happens, a distorted test card briefly appears as the transmission is interrupted.