Not at all. It’s all very interesting. And I too remember the clocks before the progs but never even thought why they were there. Si I guess it is related to the pips in a way.

Are you talking about the countdown clocks or the station ident clocks ? The countdown clock were used largely on ‘schools and colleges’ transmissions simply to alert teachers as to when the broadcast was about to commence and to get their pupils organised in time for the viewing. Station ident clocks were just there as a way of the broadcaster letting you know the news was being delivered on time… News at One, The Six o’ Clock News, News at Ten etc etc…

VT countdown clock are another story altogether…