WIMBLEDON is back in full force, with thousands of people tuning in to watch world-class tennis taking place in London. Tennis fans may be interested to know that there is a key reason why tennis is typically played with fluorescent yellow balls - and it’s all thanks to Sir David Attenborough . Typically the sport used to be played with white balls, and this dates back to the inception of lawn tennis in the late 1800s.
This was common practice for around 100 years, but became an issue from the 1960s when colour televisions started to rise in popularity. As tennis fans watch games around the world, it proved to be tricky to spot the lightning-fast tennis balls during matches. But what does this have to do with popular biologist Sir David? Sir David told The Radio Times that he worked as a controller for BBC2 in 1968 and part of his role was being responsible for bringing colour TV to the UK for the first time that year.
United States and Japan already had the advancement, but BBC was yet to switch over. David explained: “We had been asking the government over and over again, and they wouldn’t allow us, until suddenly they said, 'Yes, okay, you can have [colour television technology], and what’s more you’re going to have it in nine months’ time,' or whatever it was.” Sir David felt that Wimbledon would be the perfect event to showcase colour television for the first time.
He revealed: "I mean, it is a wonderful plot: you’ve got drama, you’ve got everything. An.
