Re:The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
by phkamp on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @07:23AM
(#17808650)
Back then the first three letters of the license plate identified the city council where the car was registered.
There wouldn't have been a lot of cars in London with that particular three-leter code which increases the chance of recognition a lot.
Re:The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
by rwmj on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @07:35AM
(#17808698)
Still does (the first two letters anyway). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
Re:The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
by NeedMoreTea on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @07:49AM
(#17808758)
It used to encode the town or part of a city, now it gives a region that could be anywhere in several counties based on the nearest DVLA local office (now all closed).
It's hard to imagine for someone brought up in the age of the information overload just how starved people were back then for entertainment and news. I remember the anxiety with which I waited a whole week for my favorite (and only) cartoon I could watch on the national television (the only TV station available). It was a Japanese show called Spaceship Sagittarius and the episodes are forever burned into my memory down to the planet names the protagonists were visiting, minor characters and plot twists. Back in the 50s, I could imagine thousands of people memorizing a license plate announced on the radio, and the story of the SOSes becoming talking subjects in the local pub.