MORE than 170 people in Glasgow are still using a black and white television 50 years on from the first colour transmission.

Thousands of homes across the country are still watching programmes in black and white, according to the TV licensing Black and White index.

In Glasgow, 179 people have still got black and white TVs, while in London more than 1500 residents have the out-of-date sets.

Almost 70 post code areas dropped off the black and white index in the last 18 months, with residents upgrading to full colour viewing.

In total across the UK, 313 post code areas have just one person viewing in monochrome.

Fergus Reid, TV Licensing spokesperson, said: "It is striking that in an era of HD TV and spectacular true-to-life pictures, there are still more than 8,000 viewers, including 176 in Glasgow, content to watch spectacular programmes like The Night Manager and Planet Earth in monochrome."

Mr Reid also reminded viewers of any TV programmes, whether in black and white, colour, on Ipads, tablets or phones, that they need to be covered by a TV licence.

Jim McLauchlan, from the Museum of Communications, said the "power of nostalgia" was one of the reasons there is still a "hard core" group of black and white TV viewers.

He said: "I know first-hand the value of black and whites TVs.

"A friend of mine never had a colour TV and the reason was that all he wanted to view was the news and the occasional current affairs programme and to him watching that in black and white was good enough.

"I think that’s will be the main reason there are still a hard core of black and white licences, many people are not so interested in using TV as a source of entertainment unlike most of us.

"Also you can never overestimate the power of nostalgia."