LONG before BBC iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon Prime, there were these folks called the TV detectors – and they'd come round the streets in a van and reckoned they could tell if you had a telly.

It was all to make sure people paid their TV licence fees of course.

Whether or not it was all some big PR stunt we're not sure. Judging by these pictures we found in our archive, methods involved holding up a TV aerial in the street, while a couple of blokes with beards looked at a fax machine inside the van.

It was clearly a big deal for Telegraph readers back then, as we had a whole folder dedicated to the various visits these guys made to town – with their increasingly high tech kit.

Earlier this year it was revealed that at least 22 households in East Lancashire still watch TV on a black-and-white set.

Latest figures released by TV Licensing show that 106 locations across the county had not made the switch to colour TVs.

Fifteen of these were in Blackburn, a further nine were in Burnley and seven are in Nelson.

The cost of a black and white TV licence is £50.50, whereas a colour one is £150.50 – how convenient for those people who definitely only have a black and white set.