How long were TV "intervals" back then?

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SatNavSaysStraightOn

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Been going through my (late) Grannie's recipe books and came across this which got me wondering exactly how long were TV intervals when this was published? (dates seem to show 1956 onwards on some recipes)

Interval Cake.jpg
 
Well, I just googled the potter's wheel interval film, and it's on Youtube at about 5 minutes, with another interval film of a spinning wheel listed at 7 minutes. But the films might be run one after the other to fill in more time. I think it depended on the nature of the interval - some were just to cover breakdowns in transmission!
 
I seem to remember there were several hours when you would see the test card, with the little girl and the clown. I found an interesting article about it. It appears the test card was created to help television retailers sell sets at a time when there were few - if any - programmes during the day.

BBC-test-card-F-featuring-008.jpg
 
Sandra Piddock said:
I seem to remember there were several hours when you would see the test card, with the little girl and the clown. I found an interesting article about it. It appears the test card was created to help television retailers sell sets at a time when there were few - if any - programmes during the day.

BBC-test-card-F-featuring-008.jpg
Click to expand...
I believe in the early days it was also to aid fault finding on the [at best] iffy cathode ray tubes of the day.
It also seems that now I can get interested in a program, make a cup of tea/coffee and maybe even grab a piece of cake sit down to watch and bang - on come the adverts - by the time the program returns I've eaten the cake and drunk the tea
 
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