{"id":12025,"date":"2025-08-01T08:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/?p=12025"},"modified":"2025-08-01T08:37:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:37:54","slug":"eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Laithwaite &#8211; BBCArchive: 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"1469\" data-end=\"1925\">This is a recent appearance on the BBC Archive YouTube channel. I do not recall ever seeing this filmed report from the BBC One programme <em data-start=\"1607\" data-end=\"1619\">Nationwide<\/em>, which aired on 6 May 1971. Bob Wellings was the reporter and a well-known face on BBC TV at that time. Professor Laithwaite appeared to be in his characteristically enthusiastic mood and described how a linear motor could potentially power a full-sized train. I have covered all of that in earlier posts.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1927\" data-end=\"2121\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">What is surprising is that it appears in black and white, even though BBC One had already transitioned to full colour broadcasting. Perhaps the film has degraded, and the colour dyes have faded. I hope we see more of him in the BBC Archives; he made numerous television appearances with them over the years as can be seen here via this link:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/genome.ch.bbc.co.uk\/search\/0\/20?order=first&amp;q=eric+laithwaite\">https:\/\/genome.ch.bbc.co.uk\/search\/0\/20?order=first&amp;q=eric+laithwaite<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pkB4q-KwGtc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Colin Grimshaw August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent arrival on the BBC YouTube channel is this film of Professor Eric Laithwaite in his lab, back in 1971.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3921,80,390],"tags":[84,81],"class_list":["post-12025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-update","category-people","category-technology","tag-electrical-engineering","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Eric Laithwaite - BBCArchive: 1971 - Imperial College Video Archive Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eric Laithwaite - BBCArchive: 1971 - Imperial College Video Archive Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent arrival on the BBC YouTube channel is this film of Professor Eric Laithwaite in his lab, back in 1971.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Imperial College Video Archive Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T07:37:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colin Grimshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colin Grimshaw\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/videoarchive\\\/eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/videoarchive\\\/eric-laithwaite-bbcarchive-1971\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Colin Grimshaw\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\\\/videoarchive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4311976ffc5be7f49bbc628f4d3e591e\"},\"headline\":\"Eric Laithwaite &#8211; 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