According to Woody Allen, the American film director: “In Beverley Hills (California) they don’t throw their garbage away.They make it into television shows”. The  “legendary” British  broadcaster, David Frost, has described television as “An invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home”.  Despite these acerbic remarks, television has substantially benefited the careers (& bank balances) of both Allen ( most of whose films have been shown frequently on TV) and Frost – who came to prominence in the 1960’s as compere of the satirical BBC TV show “That Was The Week That Was” , is particularly famous for his interview with President Richard Nixon in 1977 (made into a film, “Frost/Nixon” in 2008) and now presents a weekly hour-long current affairs programme, “Frost Over The World” for Al Jazeera TV.  Perhaps with more justification, the American screen-writer & TV producer Rod Sterling (best known for his science fiction series “The Twilight Zone”) once lamented that “It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes it is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper”.

From the middle of April, TV viewers in London and the surrounding area will be able to access a much wider range of shows (not at all of them “garbage”), interviews and documentaries than have been available to them until now. That is, if they have connected a freeview digital box to their old analogue TV set or have already purchased a digital TV. If they haven’t done either, then – as emphasised by “Digital UK”( a company jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channels 4 & 5, the digital multiplex operator SDN and the communication infrastructure & media services organization Arqiva) – they will no longer be able to watch BBC 2 after 4^th April and their screens will go completely blank after 18^th April. The consumer magazine “Which” has pointed out that – because the change from analogue to digital affects the TV signal given out by TV transmitters – even those people who planned ahead and have bought a freeview box will have to retune it regularly, especially  “at the start and end of the switchover period”. The UK has 15 TV regions: Eleven of them have so far moved to digital. The remaining areas are due to complete the process by October 2012 – among them Tyne Tees in the north-east of England (September) and Dover, Margate & Hastings on the south coast (second half of June). However– as Vivian Morgan, Digital UK’s London manager acknowledged in “The Guardian” – London , which is “the most populous area to switch, has 33 local authorities to deal with, over 50 ethnic groups, more than 300 languages spoken and about 12 million TVs ( 4 million analogue,  many of them second or third sets in kitchens and bathrooms and 5,000 of them still in black & white), presents unique logistical challenges , above all in making sure that everyone knows what’s going on”. Since January (as part of Digital UK’s efforts to generate maximum public awareness of the imminent switchover to digital in London) a tube train with its exterior décor and 272 seats coloured pink, “windows forming TV screens and the switchover message on every door”, has been running on the Central Line . Statistics provided by Chris Cain ,Digital UK’s Press Officer, assert  that “94% of London’s viewers know about the switchover  and that 96% now have digital TV on their main set or appropriate equipment ready to install”. Additional Digital UK documentation indicates that there are an estimated 60 million TV sets in the UK, 11.3 million households watch digital satellite TV and another 3.4 million subscribe to digital cable TV. At least 40 Freeview channels will be accessible in 90% of the UK but only 15 in the remaining 10%. For the switchover on Engand’s south coast , “certain French frequencies have to move out of the way”. This has required “careful co-operation” between the two countries.

Meanwhile, several local authorities in London have launched intensive digital information campaigns. Wandsworth Council ,for example, has published a special 4-page “switchover guide” in the borough’s  newspaper, advising readers on “the three main ways to go digital”: Convert your existing analogue TV using a digital box – such as Freeview,Top Up TV or BT Vision”. (Argos are retailing their own and Alba digital boxes for £17.99p and Bush digital boxes for £19.99p or £22.97p); Arrange to have a digital TV service, such as satellite or cable TV, installed: providers include Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media; Buy an IDTV (Integrated Digital TV), a television that “has an inbuilt digital decoder so that it can receive the digital terrestrial television transmission without requiring a separate set top box” (www.navito.co.uk). This is the most expensive option. Wandsworth & Digital UK recommend that you wait until the switchover to see if you need a new aerial then, (if you do), employ only a “Registered Digital Installer”(RDI). Many Councils have warned pensioners to beware of fraudulent contractors trying to persuade them on their doorstep to buy a digital box at an exorbitant price or offering to install a “digital aerial” (no such thing exists). After the switchover, you will no longer be able to record one channel on your analogue DVD equipment while watching another. If you want to continue doing this, you’ll have to purchase a digital TV recorder. The BBC is operating a “Help Scheme” for the disabled or anyone aged 75 or over at a cost of £40 for installation of the box and twelve months of “aftercare” – though for those on income-related benefits, the service is free. “Which” magazine has urged people for whom retuning their digital box after the switchover will be “fairly straightforward” to offer assistance to any of their neighbours who are “less technically minded”.

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