Peter?
8.20 at the time now.
It was on this day, 1995, when almost every landline phone number changed
forever, as the UK risked running out of numbers for new customers.
Phone Day, as it was known, meant nearly all
of our dialling codes got an extra digit.
Our reporter, Graham Satchell, has been looking
through the archives as to when the change came in.
I think we're on a winner here at three, all right?
Play it nice and cool, son.
Nice and cool, you know what I mean?
It's one to remember.
All area codes starting O must start 01, from Phone Day, the 16th of April.
Without doubt, the best thing about National Phone Day was the adverts.
Britain had run out of phone numbers for new customers.
So everyone's number had to change.
If you got it wrong, this was the message.
BEEPING Please redial, inserting the digit one after the prefix digit O.
On the day the numbers changed, worried BT
technicians pored over glitching computer screens.
Businesses had to spend almost £3 billion, changing their
company advertising and upgrading their phone systems.
BEEPING Some cities got brand-new dialling codes.
Leeds became 0113, Nottingham, 0115, Bristol, 0117.
Most simply added a one, so Birmingham went
from 021 to 0121, now rhyming slang for do one.
Liverpool went from 051 to 0151.
BEEPING The old dialling codes had become
much-loved, almost defining signifiers of a city.
This Liverpool nightclub resisted the change.
The original code of 051, it's such a beautiful thing.
It's just so authentic, and just for it to hold its own in its original, authentic,
beautiful state of 051, I think just gives it that real Liverpool Scouse feel.
I just don't think we could change it, to be honest.
The change to all our phone numbers feels like ancient history now.
A bit like red phone boxes, landlines have become almost obsolete.
I don't think we have a landline any more.
Yeah, I think it's just mobiles now, so, yeah, I don't have one.
Do you think you've got one at all?
I'm not sure, I don't think so, no.
If we do, I haven't used it in ages, so, yeah, I'm not sure.
Do you know your landline number?
I do.
Yeah, I know I still have a landline phone, but I never ever use it.
Mostly, I have a nice rotary phone, and it's just really pretty.
And it's got the little... Yeah, and she knows how to
use it, and she thinks it's, like, basically history.
My parents mostly use it to call me.
Everything else is just mobile phones, but, yeah, apart from my parents,
probably nobody else calls me on the landline.
Everyone, like, nowadays, they have, like, their own phone, so they don't
really use, like, the landlines any more, so...
But you still have one in the house, do you?
Yeah.
Does it ever ring?
Not that I heard, but...
I probably is not connected any more.
Do you know your landline number?
We no longer have one, but it was 0208-977 -3658.
Amazing, isn't it, how you remember the number?
Yeah, that was...
That has not been in use for ten years, possibly, I think, as long as that.
Grandma, I failed.
You failed?
What do you mean, you failed?
And yet, it wasn't that long ago that the only way
to keep in touch with Grandma was on the landline.
Anything else?
Man's sociology.
Anology?
It gets anology and it says it's failed.
You get anology, you're a scientist!
The unquestioning support of a grandparent.
Thank goodness some things never change.
Graham's actual BBC news.
A lot of them can't see.
So, technology expert Tom Cheesewright with us.
Morning, Tom.
Good morning.
There's a lot of nostalgia in there, a lot of fun,
you know, some of the scripts, the comedy shows.
1995, do you remember?
Was it a big deal for you?
Do you remember?
What do you remember about it?
Yeah, it was a huge deal because your area code, the thing that stuck in your head,
the first thing you dial when you're away from your
folks, whatever, that you dial to get home, changed.
And it changed for everybody.
And at the same time, lots of people's phone numbers changed as well.
We were just running out of numbers.
We had to create more.
We had to add in digits.
So not only did your area code change, actually, for
a lot of people, your phone number changed as well.
Well, you presumably weren't a technology expert then.
I was a bit of a nerd already, if I'm honest.
I was sort of born a nerd.
So did you find it...
I mean, I think a lot of people were kind of confused, just a bit sort of like,
oh, I don't know how this is going to work.
Was that the impression at the time?
I think so.
I think because it's been so established.
Bear in mind, we started using phone numbers, you
know, back in sort of early 1800s, sorry, late 1800s.
Like early 1900s, it got sort of automated.
So it's a long time these things have been around.
People have had their numbers in their head.
Imagine if you had to change your mobile number now, relearn a new mobile number.
I've had mine for 27 years, I think.
You know, having to change that number that's so embedded in your head,
you can see why it confused people and threw people.
Did it go down well?
I mean, I don't think people got too upset about it in the long run.
People understood ultimately that it was necessary.
And, you know, it's clearly been proven necessary.
You know, we needed that many numbers at the time.
This is before sort of, you know, mobiles went huge, before we had to add
all these other numbers, before we had the
number of different business lines that we had.
I mean, back then we were dealing with sort of fax
numbers and a few sort of not enough business lines.
Do you remember your home phone number?
Yes, absolutely.
But that said, I don't still have it, so... Ah, right, OK.
But and like your friends numbers that you used to call.
I mean, if they still lived there, I could still probably dial my friend's
parents from when I was about eight, nine years old.
A lot of people were reminiscing about this stuff.
When people used to answer the phone years ago, the
first thing you did was say your own number, wasn't it?
Yes.
You'd say, well, my recollection is you'd say a bit of
geography, as in the place you're in, and then the number.
We've had Annie who's messaged in, who says, Annie says, when my aunt and
uncle moved to Cornwall, their phone number was Padstow 391.
She went on to say she's in her 80s, she's had a phone at home in the early
50s, she can remember all the phone numbers over the years.
So that's the only thing you'd say.
You'd tell the person phoning who they'd phoned.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, bear in mind that this started off geographical.
So you would be phoning a local exchange where
someone would connect you to that local number.
And originally there wouldn't be numbers at all, it would just be connect me to
this person and they had to know those people.
We only added the numbers when the numbers started to
increase and when you needed to connect people quicker.
Tom, you'll like this one.
Alan said his phone number was a party line with a local pub.
So he said we could listen in and talk forbidden but interesting.
He also said their phone had an earth wire leading outside, which sometimes had got
water in it, which we sometimes had to water to get a good connection.
And don't try that at home, that sounds all wrong.
Yeah, no, it totally makes sense, yeah.
Do you have a party line?
The connections degrade, yeah.
And a party line where you're sharing the line with other addresses.
Yeah, I mean, and this is what technologies help us to overcome, right?
You know, we only have so much infrastructure in the ground, only so many cables.
When we first started making phone calls, you were
physically connected to the person you were speaking to.
You know, the wire was connected from one end to the other,
almost like a string and two cans, just on a grand scale.
We've moved a little bit beyond that now.
Made it more exciting when the phone rang.
There was... No, honestly, I can remember the phone ringing
in a house and it being quite an exciting thing to happen.
Because the phone was ringing.
Now we just take all these things for granted.
Especially if you thought it was a friend or a special
friend and you didn't want your parents to answer.
Whereas now people don't like talking on the phone.
No, very much so.
Your voice notes, messages, texts and everything.
It's like phone calls are unnecessary.
We will do anything to avoid it quite often.
Nice to see you, Tom.
Thank you very much.
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