Race for Colour

And that's the end of the story. At least that's what all the

historians thought, until now. Once David and Brian had got the newly

discovered Turner footage copied onto modern film, the next step was

to transfer it to video. Finally they used a computer to add the red

green and blue, just like the filters on the projector were

supposed to do. And then it was ready to be seen. So it's had to

wait till almost 110 years to be able to see these pictures as they

would have been hopefully seen in Turner's time. We were terrified

when Michael asked us to do it. start to think, well, what if we

spend all this time and it's a disaster? So, when all the work was

done they sat down, pressed play, What we've actually managed to do

is follow the patent process exactly, and it actually does work

and it produces a really wonderful colour. What was it like to see it

on screen? It was wonderful because the colours were so good.

that's not all. There are several other shots on the film A girl on a

swingThe marching soldiers Knightsbridge in London. A girl and

boy, thought to be at St Anne's Well in Brighton. The marching

soldiers. Knightsbridge in London. A colourful macaw. And the goldfish.

Well, that's amazing because the gold of the goldfish is absolutely

spot on, that's absolutely accurate, that's exactly how they look. How

do you feel? I think, well I could say smug but no, what I really mean

is I feel very satisfied we've actually managed to pull this off.

News of the film has gone round the world. Lad is amazing. -- that is

amazing. Colour was always the first. And that has impressed a

film producer Lord Puttnam. redefines where cinematographer got

to at that point. That is truly amazing. Michael Harvey has dated

the film of the three children as 1902. That's 12 years before the

First World War. Dating it involved some nifty detective work. We know

from receipts that the camera was finished in October 1901. The

sunflowers suggest summertime. Michael discovered that the records

show that Edward Raymond Turner, the inventor, had three children.

Alfred Raymond would have been 3, Agnes May would have been six, and

Wilfred Sydney would have been less than a year old in the summer of

1902. And there's another clue. We know that Turner and family lived

in this terraced house in Hounslow, west of London. If you look at the

film there is quite a sturdy- looking fence behind the children.

We went to look at what the garden is like now. And sure enough,

there's a lot of fencing at the far end because it backs on to a

railway line. It was built in 1886, and is now Hounslow Central tube

station. Now that looks like a pretty robust fence for a suburban

back garden, it must be keeping children away from this railway

track here. If this is Wilfred Sydney Turner, then this is him at

around five years old. And around 50 years. And about 80. And this is

Wilfred's daughter. That makes her the inventor's granddaughter. And

she has never seen this film before. When did your father die? 1990, he

was 89, he had Parkinson's disease and there was a flu epidemic and he

would not have a flu jab and that finished him off, unfortunately. So

shall we have a look at this film? Yes I'd love to, yes. And there's

you father, a baby, I like the way your dad came in, he looks into the

camera, he's looking at his father. I can see my dad there, I know it's

him, I know it is. What is it like to see your father in cull of 110

years ago? It is amazing. I'm thrilled to bits. So you're

absolutely sure that's your father? I am, I can see him definitely yes.

What is it in his face that you can? The whole face, the whole

expression, it's just him. I just know it is, it's amazing, it really

So Michael reckons that Turner tested the world's first colour

camera system by taking his kids out into the back garden and

filming them in the summer of 1902. Because, of course, that's what

happens. If you get a new camera, the first thing you do to test it

is to film the kids. Give somebody a camcorder for the first time,

watch what they do with it and there is the story of the invention

of moving images, the first thing you do is this, that's interesting,

then you start to move, then you go right, a little bit bored, then you

go 'kids, come over here and stand there' you do that, you photograph

the kids and then you say, "Well, do something interesting", and

Experts in the field of early cinema are in no doubt about the

importance of the discovery of the Turner film. The rediscovery of

these films rewrites film history. We've always thought of

cinematography starting in 1908, most film histories don't really

think about colour much before Technicolor comes in the 1930s.

Giving gearing important, or wondering very unique -- I think

it's very important, very unique. The Lee and Turner film with the

parrot and the goldfish is priceless, because it's the

earliest colour film. It's hugely important both as an artefact and

isn't anything before it. So who In the end, it wasn't Turner, it

wasn't George Albert Smith, it wasn't any of those people. And

that's because every feature film, every television, every computer

and every smartphone uses exactly the same primary colour principle

to bring colour into our lives. By exploiting the way the retina works