Rare footage shown as BBC One and ITV mark 50 years of colour

The Apollo 12 programme on the BBC featured British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore

Rare footage of coverage of the second manned Moon landing will be shown at an event marking 50 years of colour TV.

BBC One and ITV switched to colour broadcasts early on 15 November 1969, with Petula Clark at the Royal Albert Hall being the former's first show, organisers said.

An exhibition will feature early broadcast colour cameras and old TVs.

People can also explore a 1960s outside broadcast vehicle at Saturday's event at Birmingham City University.

Programmes in colour on 15 November included Star Trek, police drama Dixon of Dock Green, The Harry Secombe Show and Match of the Day.

The Apollo 12 TV programme included coverage from Nasa mission control

BBC Two had launched Europe's first advertised full colour service with the Wimbledon tennis championships on 1 July 1967, although not all items were yet in colour, Birmingham event organiser Kaleidoscope said.

Colour TV licences in 1968 cost £10, double the price of a black-and-white one.

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The Apollo 12 TV programme was shown on 19 November 1969, the day of the second manned landing on the Moon and four days after the BBC One colour milestone.

Radio Times marked the change to colour

Among the classic TV finds being showcased on Saturday is Goodbye Again, featuring comedy double act Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and a cameo from a young John Cleese.

Only shown in the US, it has been recovered from a two-inch videotape and was previously believed to have only existed in black and white, the university said.

Kaleidoscope CEO Chris Perry said test transmissions were under way at the BBC from the 1950s and he was pleased "to be showing many of the colour tests on the original television sets displayed".

Tickets for the event at the university's Curzon Building are free.

The earliest surviving colour episode of popular 1960s British police drama Z Cars was from 1970, the university said